The Blog That Cried Wolf

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, please don't feed the night.

More revisions of Sowen still to do, but I'm about 3/4 of the way through. Should have another round of editing done midweek. My current revisions have been focusing on the structure of the story, which I think for the most part is solid. I originally didn't structure the story to be a series, but the ideas unfolded into a much bigger beast that could not realistically be contained into one novel, or better yet, be sold as one novel. As a result, much of my time has been on reconstructing and removing parts that will occur later in the series. My current structure has the story broken down into 4 novels. And since the story occurs primarily on Halloween, each book will be one year apart, which would cover Christopher Sowen's high school career, since he is a freshman in the first story.

I still need to finish some research for a couple of scenes I've been putting off. One piece of research relates to the gray wolf. I found this great picture from National Geographic that I have pinned above my desk to remind me that wild animals do not talk, sing and dance like their Hollywood counterparts.

Later Fiends.

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Revision, Revisions

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, please watch your step.  The floor is slippery.

I'm back to editing Sowen, now on my third revision, and I'm very pleased with how the story is coming together.  Thinking back to when I started the story, I am amazed at how it has changed, so much so that I could not imagine sticking to the outline I created in the beginning.  I had put some notes together before I started this project-- character sketches, big concepts, major conflicts, things like that--but as the story evolved new ideas tempted me, old ideas no longer worked, and entire chapters were tossed.  Now, looking through this old outline, I see that very few things are used.

I imagine for some the outline is imperative, but for me, it seems to be more of a brainstorming tool that helps get me going.  My characters ultimately dictate the plot.  I just try to keep up with them.

So, dear readers, what is your preference:  outline or not?

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Gus Fink's Boogily Heads are the sweetest freaks I've seen in a while.  I can imagine a small army of these creatures sitting on my desk, their heads nodding in unison, agreeing to every mad thing I say.

Later Fiends,

  

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