I got the whole story in order on Thursday, took Friday off, and am extending the outline just a bit today to eliminate a few inconsistencies — one of the problems with the notecard approach is that scenes as you first envision them frequently need a bit of reworking once they’re in the context of other scenes.
I’m doing a workshop on notecarding for the upcoming issue of Vision E-Zine; if you’re interested in this approach to plotting out a novel, take a look when it goes up.
Anyway, work this morning is going well, and the scenes are filling my head — always a nice feeling. I have the ‘line’ now, the vision of how the story moves from front to back, and what the strongest, central thread of it will be. I’m itching to write, but I know better than to start the scene without actually having the scene outline in place. I have been burned before. See, for example, ALL entries in this weblog regarding the writing of The Wreck of Heaven, which started its first two lives as Closer to Chaos and turned my life into chaos in the process. I think I’d rather not repeat that ordeal with this book.
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