Outlined-ish

I can see Upturned Stones unfolding before me. A week of long walks, plus a month of daydreaming, and I think I have a reasonable grip on the story, and the scenes critical to helping that story unfold.

To be fair, my grip isn't as ephemeral as I would like it to sound. It doesn't seem quite as artsy to say I have an excel-style spreadsheet with a scene-by-scene road map for the book.

Yeah, my mathy husband is awfully pleased at how mathy I've made my writing process.

But, I'm just learning. I'm experimenting, really. With my first novel, I began with the hyper-organized Snowflake Method, but ditched it in favor of my poor, underdeveloped muse. I attempted to get a grip on the characters and a general sense of where the story could go, leaving the rest up to intuition, inspiration, and caffeine. It didn't work out very well. The result was a meandering mess that veered so far from the story I really wanted to tell, that I have sidelined both the manuscript and an outline for the second draft for some future surge of inspiration, intuition, and caffeine.

In other words, it stunk.

So as stuffy and systematic as the Snowflake Method is, I'm going to give it another go, all the way through, and see where it puts me. So far, I really like how the story is shaping up, I still love my characters, and there is a lot of mystery in how the scenes will unfold. There are a few bits of research to complete along the way, and certainly there is room for future changes as necessary.

I'm not worried about getting bored with the writing... which starts today. Scene 1... The Murderess.

Off I go then.