Genna went home, after a fashion, and in a period of days, the world she had known all her life had been obliterated.
I didn’t know. I was as stunned as she was. Now she’s searching for the people who were there the last time she saw the place. Family, friends …
This completely threw me. I’d known things had gotten bad, but I didn’t know they’d gotten so bad, so close.
Just under 3000 words, and another chapter down.
Margaret: 😀 It’s a pretty flexible system. And beats the hell out of the way I used to do it, actually trying to write from my proposal outline. Hah!
Yep. That’s exactly what I thought :). I adopted your notecard technique years ago (with adaptations) and so have been in the position with the details changing even radically but the whole staying roughly on target. I’ve actually managed to move most of those discoveries up the chain to the point that I’m actually ordering my scene blurbs, but they still sometimes blindside me :D.
Cheers,
Margaret
I am right on track with my outline, as a matter of fact—something really unusual for me. Generally I’ve veered pretty far astray by this time.
However, this is the first complete novel that I’ve started from scratch and written in Scrivener, so the little plot cards are all in place, and I just click the next one to start a new chapter. (I don’t have to refer to the card stack, which I tended to ignore when I really got rolling.) I have thrown out a few cards and replaced them with new ones, though. Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have second and third thoughts midstream.
Remember, my plot outline is a series of index cards with ONE SENTENCE written on each that tells me what I have to accomplish in that chapter to move the story forward. Working in this fashion leaves me with a tremendous amount of room to maneuver, and a whole lot of ways to be surprised. And if the chapter ends up at the point where I can move smoothly to the next card, my next day is set. (If it doesn’t, I can always toss the next card and write a new one.)
Any chance for a Friday snippet? (she asks wistfully)
Hey Holly? Can you settle a debate for me?
With all these new surprises, are you still within the realms of your outline, or has it been tossed out the window and you’re flying free?
Won’t tell you which is my assumption :).
Cheers,
Margaret
!
This is really cool “watching” you have all these surprises while writing. But I have a question now: What have all these surprises done to your outline? Are you even close to what you originally had plotted? 🙂
Wow! Talk about getting surprised. Glad you had another good writing day.