Well I thought perhaps it was time I did a quick update.
It’s been a long few months. I’ve gone weeks at different times without even opening a word processor. At other times I’ve sat down to write and an hour later had barely more than two sentences of story. The journey through NaRasch seemed to be the most difficult part for me. But at last, after countless roadblocks, and having written my characters into holes so deep I didn’t even think I could write them out again, I’m happy to say I’ve broken free of the muddle that is NaRasch, and moving happily on to Gaeline.
I’m also breaking a great deal of new ground in my writing technique. For the first time ever I’m beginning to use outlines, and what’s more, to find them useful. Not that I’ve changed the way I write, mind you. I’ve never been able to sit down with a pencil and a pad of paper and imagine within my mind the entirety of a book from beginning to end. No, like a peasant I must just dive in and see where the story takes me. But if an outline still cannot tell me where I’m going, I’m finding now that it can at least tell me where I’ve been. And to my surprise it’s proving to be a most valuable technique. For the first time I’m able to track the dates of the events within my story, and say for certain that a certain thing, (the fight with the Paladin, for example) happened this many days ago. It’s forced me to rethink certain elements and make certain changes – removing a section of Leordon’s story, for example because I realize now that in order for him to get from point A to point B in the time that it took Gail to get there, he must travel quickly and there is no possible way that he could have taken the scenic route and passed through point C.
But having written pages and pages of outline and spent hours poring over old texts in order to bring everything together, I’m quite pleased that at last I’m making tracks again, and well on my way to making a release early next year.