Bryony's Market - Part One Wrapup

I'm writing a novel. All my progress can be found on my private blog. The commentary for each day's work can be found below.

Check out my total down there. No progress today. And I'm still a day ahead, ha!

Of course, it's not fair to say that I've had no progress today. I'm about to embark on the second part of this story, and the time has come to do a bit of outlining and organizing. Now, I've pretty much been making stuff up as I go along up until now, and I plan to keep up with that writing method. Hey, it's paid off so far.

But all along, I've known what scenes there were to write. I simply didn't turn away from any additional scenes along the way that I hadn't planned to write. Fully 90% of the first section of this story was planned in advance--I just didn't necessarily know where it was going to go in the narrative, or exactly how I would write it when I got to it.

I think you can get away with that more easily at the beginning of a story. If I want to add on a new thread, I can do so without immediate repercussion. But in the middle of a story, I want to concentrate on those threads that I've already established without adding many more. And in the conclusion, I'll want to start tying them off. In fact, I'm going to go on the record right now as saying that when I finish Part 2, I'll probably take two days off for outlining.

I'm limiting myself to one day of outlining this time because I don't want to overthink what's coming up. My goals are to look at the scenes that are left to write, and divided them up between Parts 2 and 3. Then I want to arrange the Part 2 scenes into general arcs, and at least get the first of those arcs pinned down.

Another big task is to spell out the plot threads I've left hanging in the first section, big and small. I'll want to note for each scene how I intend to advance those plots threads.

Finally, the ending. I already have in mind how I'm going to end this part of the story, and damn, I can't wait to write it. It will be heartwrenching.

Another new thing for this part is the character of Devan, who will be getting his own POV chapters. I decided I couldn't tell the story I want to tell without it. The trick will be not duplicating ground I've already covered with Bryony, but I think I'll manage it. And it should serve the purpose of introducing more male characters into the story. So far, we've only seen Devan as he relates to Bryony, and I want to develop him a bit more fully. Percentage-wise, he'll get more POV time than Merona, but less than Bryony, who is still the main character.

As for Merona, I don't know if she will continue to have POV sections or not. Those parts served a definite purpose by letting us in on information we would not otherwise have gotten. But for reasons that will become apparent, that restriction is no longer valid. I guess if the writing requires her POV, I'll use it; otherwise, I won't feel obligated to.

Finally, one more note: I've been calling what I've finished so far "Part 1," but I've become convinced that it's really Book 1. I don't know how (or if) this story would be published, but 83,869 words is a good length for a novel. Formatted into a standard hardcover format, it would be 280-350 pages as is, without any revision. My guess is that my first revision will reduce my word count to around 75,000, but that subsequent revision will push it up into the 85-90k range.

(By the way, did you notice that I hit the 33.3% mark at the same time I concluded part 1 of 3? Makes it look like a total word count of 250k is right on the money.)

With that in mind, I'm not going to start tomorrow with Chapter 22, but rather with Book 2, Chapter 1... or maybe a prologue. Although I know what my opening scene is and could technically start it today, I don't know precisely where I'm going after that, and I'd rather wait until I can get the flow going and not stop.

What will this mean? Well, I need to come up with names for these books, and for the series. Bryony's Market has always been only a working title. I had thought of the Market Eldercroft Trilogy for the series as a whole. For the individual novels, Set Middling, Brought Low, and Among the High were bopping around in my head last night. Bryony's Awakening, Bryony's License, and Bryony's Market was another set of possibilities. Or I could full Harry Potter and call the first story Bryony and the Philosopher's Mark. What would the second one be, Bryony and the Market of Secrets, followed by Bryony and the Prisoner of Shazbot?

Honestly, I'm very glad to be moving on to the next major section of the story, because all Harry Potter parallels should be officially over. Bryony will be eighteen. She has come of age, and has an actual position within the Market. She has both extra freedom and extra responsibility, and those will change the story structure significantly.

I keep getting stuck on the name of the first book. The Middling Mark? The Girl in the Snow? This Little Girl Went to Market? (Okay, I need more coffee.) I'm trying desperately to avoid the fantasy cliché of titles like X of the Y. There is way, way too much of that stuff in fantasy titles. Look at Jordan: The Eye of the World, The Lord of Chaos, Path of Daggers, The Fires of Heaven, A Crown of Swords, Knife of Dreams, Crossroads of Twilight, A Memory of Light... the list would go on, except that's all of his titles that fit that mold. He's not the only offender: George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks, all the modern fantasy guys do it. Sure, Tolkien may have started it with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King, but he started a lot of things. Doesn't mean you have to keep doing it the same way.

So, enough rumination. I've got outlining to do. Book 2 starts tomorrow!

Today's Total: 0 / 1,689 words (0.0%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 24,642 / 23,646 words (104.2%, 0.6 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 24,642 / 50,670 (48.6%)
Est. Completion: 83,869 / 250,000 words (33.5%, 98 days to go)