📋50,000 Words and a Change of Plans

🖋️A few months ago, I decided for NaNoWriMo that I’d like to write Huntress #3. I’d written the first two during earlier NaNos, and I tried last year but didn’t have a solid outline, so my attempts to rewrite it floundered.

This year, I thought, once I finished Legends of Cirena #9, I’d reread the first two books, make myself an outline, and then be ready to go come November.

Fast forward to the end of October… when I was still trying to wrap up the rough draft for LoC #9 (to be fair, at this point it is a mostly revised draft with a handful of first draft scenes because the process for this one has been messier than usual, though I’m considerably happier with where it is now)… I realized I was not going to be able to start Huntress #3 and still start on the first of November.

And there were a couple factors I’ve learned about myself:

1. I enjoy the momentum/self-competitiveness of starting at a set day (especially with other people) and trying to reach a goal by a set time.
2. I really need that outline if I want a streamlined process that doesn’t involve me staring blankly at the screen. I am very much a plotter/plantser. I like some leeway to run with a tangent, but I need to be able to fully envision the scene if I’m going to avoid getting derailed and also write quickly.

With that in mind, Isaac suggested that maybe I should try working on another project that was ready to go.

The one project I could think of that didn’t have anything else attached to it yet was Isaac’s Untitled Fantasy Story project that we heavily outlined a year or so ago but hadn’t written.

So I grabbed that Scrivener file come midnight on October 31st, reviewed a couple of the scene notes, and went from there.

It’s been a little rough going, but so far I’ve managed to stay on par (above 1667 words per day) and reached the 50K word goal as of last night.

Biggest problem is trying to remember exactly how the magic system works and the context for some of the scenes. The ones with the biggest questions I skipped and plan to go back to later. But it’s been fun rediscovering the big twists and key plot points as I write, since I’ve really only been reading a few scenes of the outline at a time. (By outline I mean something like a synopsis… it’s got detail).

And this has really led me to realize that I write faster and better when I have the scene envisioned in my head, either because I’ve already told myself that story (The Wishing Blade series), or because someone has told that story to me (such as in this case, in which the story is Isaac’s creation, but I’m doing the writing. Or like in some of our role-play games turned novels, like Distant Horizon.)

Anyway, though this story had been a back-burner project a month ago, I’m now debating how much attention I want to give this.

• Finish the rough draft? – definitely
• Make revisions accounting for things I remembered while writing later scenes? – probably
• Do a polishing revision pass? – not sure yet
• Write rough draft for book two? – well… I should probably go finish LoC #9 and Huntress #3 first. probably

But I really am enjoying it, and kind of excited to move forward on the project. So we’ll see. ☺️

Here’s the short pitch:

In a world where non-mages are systematically killed or enslaved, a notorious elderly mage known for protecting non-mages drops an over-zealous “chosen one” youngster into the training of an academic mage whose polyamorous family secretly harbors a non-mage.

Mages have wands and staves, there’s an evil empire, some secrets about what happens when magic gets over-used, and animal familiars. Lots of fun! 😁

What writing processes have you found work best for you?

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Happy writing and reading!