Day Sixty-one - 113,305 words and counting

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.

It's an odd feeling, getting back into my writing after so long away. There is so much that is identical to last year, and so much that's different. I find myself falling back into the comfortable rhythm of composition, and I wonder why I ever stopped.

But those are thoughts that I can save for State of the Novel post tomorrow. For right now, I've got to get started on composing a scene that I've had in my head for quite some time: Bryony's meeting with the Patroness.

The trick here is to both meet and counter expectations. I want the scene to be satisfactory, but at the same time surprising. Also, first impressions being important, I need to make sure to give the Patroness a good one.

*****

Oh, this Christmas music is killing me. I'm going to have to start bring headphones to listen to my own music, because it's making it really hard to concentrate.

*****

Well, the Christmas music ended, which is good. I'm hoping that at my normal time of the day, it won't be on at all.

I'm happy with today's section, although I do wonder if the story is moving fast enough at this point. I've decided to take advantage of Bryony being where she is to introduce a couple more characters, but that won't happen until tomorrow, as I continue with Chapter Eight.

Today's Total: 1,774 / 1,689 words (105.0%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 58,248 / 50,670 words (115.0%, 4.5 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 58,248 / 50,670 (115.0%)

Day Sixty - 111,531 words and counting

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.

So yesterday, I got Bryony and Merona up to the gates of the ducal city. Today, they go inside.

I'm never quite sure how much of the ceremony to go through. I had to give a taste of it when the Kindelbrys came to the market in the last book, and there too I felt like I was doing too much. Here again, I could probably write several chapters if I went into complete detail about the kinds of ceremonies that are part of ducal life, but what boring chapters they would be. Instead, I want to give the flavor of it and then gloss over most of the actual content to get to the action.

*****

I liked hitting the note about Bryony's past here. I like to keep that plot thread in mind every so often, and this felt like a natural place to put it. It will also motivate some of the drama that happens later on in the chapter.

I hope the end of the section, which also ends the chapter, is something of a surprise. I promise, an actual meeting with the Patroness is coming soon, and will take place in Chapter Eight, but for right now, I think stretching out the tension is a good thing.

Chapter Eight begins tomorrow!

Today's Total: 1,899 / 1,689 words (112.4%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 56,474 / 48,981 words (115.3%, 4.4 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 56,474 / 50,670 (111.5%)

Day Fifty-nine - 109,632 words and counting

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.

Now I'm finally up to the scene where Bryony meets the Patroness, although that meeting may not occur until late in today's section, if at all. There's lots of preparatory work to get through before I get there.

I did a bit of misdirection in the earlier scene with Lord and Lady Chasset, so I hope this will be a surprise of sorts. Enough putting it off! Let's get to it!

*****

Well that's it for today! I didn't get as far in the action as I expected, but it's because Bryony and Merona had more to say to each other than I thought. The action continues tomorrow as Chapter 7 continues.

Today's Total: 1,710 / 1,689 words (101.2%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 54,575 / 47,292 words (115.4%, 4.3 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 54,575 / 50,670 (107.7%)

Day Fifty-eight - 107,922 words and counting

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.

Now I'm up to another Devan section, which should round out Chapter Six. It's going to end with a bit of a cliffhanger for Devan, although not too too much of one. Still, it should be enough of a hook to pull us into the next chapter... in which Bryony finally meets the Patroness.

*****

I'm happy with the content of this section, though I'm not awfully happy with the writing itself. It felt clumsy to me, and I think it's going to need considerably revision to make it tolerable later. Still, I'm past it now and can get to the next scene along the line.

Tomorrow begins Chapter Seven. Six was a long chapter with three different viewpoints. I rather think that Seven will be just as long, but with only one viewpoint--maybe two, depending where I draw the line.

Today's Total: 1,955 / 1,689 words (108.6%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 52,865 / 45,603 words (115.9%, 4.3 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 52,865 / 50,670 (104.3%)

Day Fifty-seven - 105,967 words and counting

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.

How do you pick up from the place where you left off one year ago? Pretend you're picking up from yesterday.

That's what I'm doing today. When we last left our heroes, Bryony had just been told off by Merona for being awesome, and then she asked a very important question about magic, which has not yet been answered. And I think it's time.

*****

I think the following question is one I'm going to be asking myself constantly, at least at first--how would this scene have gone if I had written it last year? I don't think it would have gone back to that mantra of Merona's, but it arrived there very naturally this time. In fact, for the first time I think that I'm happy about how it turned out right now. I don't think I could have done better a year ago, and might have done it less well.

In other words, I now have confidence that the author I am now can finish this story as well as the author I was then.

I hadn't intended to do a Gideon section here, but it's been a while and I think it's a good point to do it. The audience already knows that Carver is Tynofast, but Gideon doesn't know that. So this section really only accomplishes one thing--to move Gideon's plot forward. But I've also made it give us some more description of the Avenue, and some insight into Gideon's character, both of which help texture out the novel.

Today's Total: 1,834 / 1,689 words (108.6%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 50,910 / 43,914 words (115.9%, 4.1 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 50,910 / 50,670 (100.5%)

Day Fifty-six, Part 2 - 104,133 words and counting

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.

Okay, so I'm going to just try to pick up where I left off.

The 1,689 words post for today is everything I've done on Book 2 to date, with a few text corrections and the addition of a new prologue. I have reworked the total word count at the top, because when I checked it today I came up with a tally that was quite a bit lower than I thought. It doesn't matter. This is where I'm starting from.

Tomorrow is Day Fifty-Seven. So what if there's a one year gap in there, right?

My percentage totals below have been updated based on the new word count. Hey! I'm almost done for November! Good for me!

Today's Total: 1,775/ 1,689 words (105.1%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 49,076 / 42,225 words (116.2%, 4.1 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 49,076 / 50,670 (96.9%)

How Much More Is There?

So one question that I'm having a hard time answering is how much story I have left. For the most part, the story beats I planned from the beginning are the beats I'm using now, but they've been fleshed out significantly in the mean time. The thing is, I've developed more the scenes that I'm closer to writing.

It's like in a video game, where the background objects may only be a few pixels high, but up close they're rendered in exquisite detail. The result, however, is that I have a hard time judging how much story there is left. As I get closer to future plot points, they get more developed, and it turns out there's more story to tell than I expected.

I can't say that I'm the only writer to have this problem. It's almost a cliche for the fantasy author to start out writing one book, that becomes a trilogy, that becomes a longer series, and seems like it's never going to end. The author swears to his audience that he does have an ending in mind; die hard fans believe him, detractors say he's making it up as he goes along.

But he does have an ending, it's just further away than he planned, and he really, really wants to get there because it's such a cool ending. Well, that's the position I'm in now.

I'm trying to ask myself now if I'm really in Book 2, or if I'm still in Book 1, or if that even matters. Are there three books in the series? Four? One giant one? I have no idea at this point, and I think that's okay.

So what I'm going to do is this... go on as if I'm writing Book 2, and when I get enough of a word count and reach a point of closure, move on to Book 3. If that ends the story, great. If not, I move on to Book 4, or whatever it takes. Then I can edit together the text into whatever volumes seem appropriate.

More Preparation?

I'd love about an extra month to prepare. But at the end of that time, I'd probably want another couple of weeks of preparation. I kind of think that if I ever got to the point that I felt I was perfectly prepared to write a story, it would be because I had already done so much that the actual story-writing would be pointless.

There are some things I haven't figured out yet, connections I haven't made, details I haven't devised. But I know what my next scene is going to be, and the one after that, and the one after that. I'm fully prepared to show up this morning and write.

In the words of E.L. Doctorow, "[Creativity is] like driving a car at night. You never see farther than your headlights, but you make the whole trip that way."

Well, there's no point staying at home until the sun comes up, because even when it does, you can't see over the horizon.

We come to it at last...

Though it won't be apparent for a few days, I am now about to begin to write new material for Bryony's Market. I'm anxious that I won't do it well. I'm afraid of messing up a really good story. I'm certain that I'm going to write myself into a corner I can't get out of.

But I'm going to try anyway. Because otherwise, it won't get done at all, will it?

Secret Asian Man

Here's another character sketch from Starbucks. There's this guy, Asian in appearance but completely American in voice, who comes for coffee on a regular basis. He stays for a while, though not as long as me, but spends most of his time at the counter chatting up the staff. I call him "Secret Asian Man," both because of his deceptive voice and the suave, debonair attitude he gives off in his flirtations.

My guess is that he works the usual day-wage type of job, like me, but has lots of stories about what he "really" does for a living. He hacks into corporate websites as an independent contractor to test security systems. He's a professional sharpshooter, and will be competing for South Korea in the 2012 Olympics. He's a hand model. He designs detailed miniatures for independent movies. He restores antique automobiles. He trains Lipizzaner stallions. He was a performer with Cirque de Soleil until The Accident.

Here's something I just realized... for each of those things, there is a person in the world for which it is true. Maybe some of them even come here in the mornings.

Index Cards

I've decided that I need index cards. Preferably in different colors, because I'd like each color to represent a single plotline, or perhaps a time period - not sure yet. (Both? It'd be nice to have different related colors for each timeline... light and dark blue, light and dark green, etc.)

The idea is to map out the chronology. Step one is to put everything in chronological order by plotline. Next, shuffle the plotlines among each other so that their relative chronology is set. Some of these scenes will actually be the same scenes, and in those cases, I'll have to decide on which POV to use. For some, the chronology isn't really set, so I'll intersperse them where it feels good to do so.

But I can't forget that my timeline doubles back on itself. So once I'm done with that, it's time to set the two timelines side by side and integrate them again. It's an important note to remember that no matter what my timeline does, chronologically speaking, the reader is learning all these things linearly, one scene, one page, one word after the other.

When this is done, I want to tape my cards together so that they fold up in a big stack. As I write, I can check them off, note which chapter is which. If I need to rearrange or add or splice, I'll do with scissors and tape.

I'm looking forward tpo having this writing aid next to me. I think it will work very well, once it's finished.

My goal is to accomplish this tomorrow (Saturday) and begin to write on Sunday. I think that's totally doable. I just have to do it.

Final Assembly

Right now, I'm at the final assembly stage of the various plotlines I've been working out. I'm struggling with it a bit more than I thought I would, and I think it's because for the most part, the plotlines don't really intersect. There are places that they do, but for the most part, they don't form a unified whole in this book.

I think I'm just now discovering what all fantasy authors who write multiple book series eventually find--when a story is larger than just one book, it can take some work to hold it all together. Imagine three ropes that are tied together at both ends. If they're kept in one piece, they can stay together without a problem. If you cut them into, say, three pieces, then there is nothing holding the middle together.

So what I need to do is to maximize the binding that holds them together. If I braid my plotlines together, then it doesn't matter so much that they're nothing tying them together... the friction of the braids accomplishes the same thing.

To make the metaphor plainer, I want to interweave the plotlines together so that each scene leads into the next really well, even if they're not strictly related. And that's taking some effort to figure out.

Perhaps I should just start writing--i.e., making the ropes--and worry about how I weave them together later.

Verizon Lady

Sometimes you have to look for a bit of crazy to bring into your life, and sometimes it lands in your lap.

There are lots of familiar faces that come through Starbucks in the morning, people who are regulars like me, but who don't typically stay for any length of time. Today, one of them approached me, pointing at my netbook.

"Is that yours?" she asks.

A number of sarcastic comments pop to mind, but they're all too obvious, and besides, that would be rude. So instead, I simply reply in the affirmative.

"Is it Verizon?"

Now there's a question I hadn't expected. Does Verizon make netbooks? I say that no, it's an Asus Eee PC, and in no way affiliated with Verizon.

"Well!" she says, and launches into a sales pitch. Apparently you can get a free netbook with a Verizon Blackberry service plan and it's a great computer and all you have to do is sign a two year commitment but then again everyone has you sign a two year commitment these days and if you have to you can get out of it, but look! You get a computer just like that one you have there, only it's even smaller and it does everything you need a computer for these days like Internet Explorer and email and....

I stared politely at her until she wound down. I had ample opportunity to study her as I did so. She was somewhere in her late forties, perhaps already tipped over into the precipice of the early fifties. She wore a white zip-up hoodie, glasses with heavy black frames brought to a tip at the ends, hair that had been dyed blonde at some point in the prehistoric past, but which now had deep brown roots. She wore black sweatpants as well, but on her feet, fancy strappy sandals with little rhinestone buckles.

So what's her backstory? I figure that it's not only college students who do the walk of shame, but adults plan for it better. Why go home in the dress you wore to the 40+ mixer last night when you can bring along comfy sweatpants? But dammit, she always forgets the shoes. But that's okay, no one will notice if she just stops into Starbucks for a few minutes.

Or maybe she works from home, for Verizon of course, but she has to go out and get her morning coffee. And you know, she'd really prefer to put on comfortable shoes, but she saw these last weekend and just had to get them, and her husband said she'd never wear them, and she said that just showed what he knew, except she really didn't know where she would wear them, but now she had to wear them all over the place just so he would shut up about how she always wasted money on shoes.

She concluded her pitch by saying that she was looking for ten people who were on Verizon to send a text message to a certain number and then she'd save $60 on her bill. I have Verizon, but I kept quiet. I had no interest in participating.

"Enjoy your laptop!" she said as she left, and as a parting shot, "Sorry you had to pay for it!"

"Call of Duty"-Pants Man

So there's this guy who comes into the Starbucks where I write, every morning. He's wearing a burgundy hoodie, a pair of moccasins with white socks, and a pair of fleecy, camouflage pajama shorts emblazoned with the "Call of Duty" logo. He buys four venti coffees and leaves.

Now see, that's the sort of detail I'd like to be able to make up for a story! There are lots of little character-revealing things there. I don't know anything about him other than his appearance (and his unsuccessful attempts to flirt with the staff), but I feel like I could write his entire story. There he sits in his mother's basement, playing computer games and drinking coffee. Once a day, he sallies forth into the world to purchase a the morning's supply of coffee. In the afternoon and evening, he switches to Mountain Dew. He could write essays on the proper way to line up a shot in Call of Duty. He has, and it was well received on the message board where he spends all of his non-gaming time....

I like this exercise. Tomorrow, I'm going to do it again with one of the other regular patrons here.

Outlining Redux

This is post number 222... how cool is that? If your answer was "not very," then stop reading now.

Yesterday presented a very interesting discussion at my writing group, Writers on the Verge, regarding the topic of outlining. There were as many opinions on the subject as there were people in attendance.

Some of us outlined by major themes, and let the details come as they would. Others focused on a detailed backstory of characters, defining the relationships between them, and let the drama emerge somewhat organically. Others just started writing to see where it would take them.

It occurred to me as I was listening to the different techniques that they were all, for the most part, suited for the particular type of story that each person was writing. My personal style is to give myself a roadmap so that each day when I sit down to write, I know where I'm going that day. But I tend to write stories with somewhat complicated plots, and without that outline I'd be lost entirely. I also do character backstories, but I use that drama to drive the outline before I start into the actual plot.

It makes me wonder whether the type of stories that people enjoy writing determines their outline style--or whether it is some aspect of their personality that both brings out a certain style, and makes them want to write a certain type of story in the first place.

Mixed Timeline Techniques

So I've pretty much decided (surprise!) that a mixed timeline is the way to go. Now what remains is to brainstorm the best way to carry it off. In order to keep this blog spoiler free, I'm going to speak in generalities about my thought processes in dividing up my timelines.

The basic question is what gets revealed when in each timeline. I don't want my future timeline to be a spoiler to my past timeline. However I do want it to hint at my past timeline, to provide clues about my past timeline. In the context of this book, the difficulty I'm running into is the need to do a character POV set in the future that would, by its very nature, give away the climax of the past timeline.

And so I think I know what I need to do. I need to divide the book in half. The first half of the book is going to alternate between those two timelines, past and present. Each of these will reach a climax at the same point, and the climax to the past timeline will coincide with a climax to the future timeline.

In the second half of the book, I can start to include that character POV I was talking about. The past timeline will continue, and bring me up to the point where the future timeline began, way back at the beginning of the book. Meanwhile, the future timeline will have another climax of its own at the end, which sets up the third book to continue on from that point.

If I were writing the story chronologically, it would just go straight through; in this way, it will double back over itself. By the time the book ends, that entire stretch of time will be dealt with, without gaps. As I indicated before, I may choose to compose the story chronologically and reorganize it later. That still remains to be seen.

As a result, the story will have two slow builds to four big climaxes. They will hit two at a time, in the middle of the book and at the end. Otherwise, the result would be four builds to four climaxes. The best reason not to do it this way is because I'm not certain that two of those climaxes are big enough to stand alone. By coincidence, one of the lesser climaxes is in each timeline. So by layering the story, I'm maximizing the effect of those big moments.

Time for Chronology

As I write, I've been toying with a couple of different possible chronologies--either I could stick to strict chronological order, or mix it up, and have a future and a present (or present and past) timeline that go on simultaneously.

So in deciding which I want to do, I believe it will be helpful to list some of the advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

Chronological

Advantages:

• Straightforward - the reader learns what's going on in order, at the same time as the characters (more or less)
• Less confusing - no need to spend any time establishing which setting we're in.

Disadvantages:

• Possibly boring, or at least just very vanilla
• Reader may not have the context to understand the significance of the events they're reading.

Mixed Timeline

Advantages:

• "Cause and effect" storytelling - it is possible to move forward immediately to a consequence (perhaps unforeseen) of what just happened
• Narrative inevitability - The question changes from "what's going to happen?" to "how does this happen?"
• Parallelism - It is possible to show directly parallels between events in the past and present.
• Context - An event which seems insignificant at the time may be very important. The reader, having already seen the consequences, will understand whether the characters do or not.
  

Disadvantages

• Confusing - It is even more important to establish the setting of each scene. This is easier in film than in a book
• Narrative inevitability - The question changes from "what's going to happen?" to "how does this happen?"

If you notice, I put narrative inevitability as both an advantage and a disadvantage, and I believe it is. I believe this is a technique that should not be overused because it changes the entire impact of the story. If nothing else, it is difficult to put a character in mortal danger in the early section when it is obvious they are okay later on.

But if you notice, I came up with more advantages for a mixed timeline, and since I keep going back to that, I think it's the way I need to go.

In that case, the question becomes this--how to carry it off without having any of those disadvantages?

Sleep...

What's the best way to deal with the fact that characters need sleep too? I've seen it handled several different ways, from ignoring it completely to making it a driving motivation for the story.

Often, it feels like an inconvenience. We tend to ignore several of the more visceral human urges in stories, except when they're important for moving the plot along. In general, it doesn't matter that the main character is hungry or thirsty or has to go to the bathroom... unless it does matter that the main character is hungry or thirsty or has to go to the bathroom. Like many details in a story, only the relevant ones get mentioned.

When I'm writing a first person or third person restricted POV, I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm not trying to replicate precisely what that person would be thinking in that particular set of circumstances. I want to create the illusion that's what I'm doing, while instead using those thoughts to move the action and characterization along.

For that matter, is dialogue any different? I want to maintain the illusion that my characters are just chatting away, each pursuing his or her own reason for being part of the conversation, but really I'm the puppet master putting them to work.

But I digress. If it is incumbent upon me to only bring up those details which are important to the story, then I suppose it's okay to occasional neglect to take care of my characters biological needs. At least, so long as that neglect doesn't become a plot hole. Perhaps it's a good idea, in general, to leave open spaces of time in between scenes to allow for a little alone time.

Padding

I've heard authors accused of "padding" their books to make them thicker. At first I didn't fully understand what the problem was--if you're getting more of your favorite series, why does it matter? And in general I still believe that to be the case. In fact, I think a lot of books could stand to have a bit more padding.

Think about it like weight. Some books are downright anorexic, so sparse that the story barely holds together as a cohesive whole. Others are fit, trim, and athletic, fast reads that step on the plot accelerator and never let up. Still others are morbidly obese, where the actual story is so bogged down in digression and purple prose that it can't move.

But there are options to that, and it's what I think of as a Normal Guy story. He's not immensely athletic, but he can walk up stairs without getting out of breath, and run when he has to. He eats healthy, but doesn't have a problem with an afternoon snack every now and then.

And that's the point! Reading a book without any "padding" is like maintaining a perfectly healthy diet--good for you, I'm sure, but not nearly as much fun as indulging sometimes. The trick is to maintain a good balance between lean prose and the fat that makes a story tasty.

The Big Finish

I spent a significant amount of time yesterday plotting out the climactic finale of the third book. I find myself in an interesting position of knowing how all the major players fare, but debating among several different ways of getting them there.

Part of it is because I don't yet have a clear picture of what those people are going to find in that place at that time. The answer to that question is going to drive the action. Perhaps I should work backwards. Once I know what action I want to happen, I can figure out what would cause that action to develop naturally, and choose that.

I think writing is a lot like calculus. You can take the derivative of any function. That's the analog to introducing an element and then pursuing the consequences of it. If you have a starting place, you can write about what comes next based on your knowledge of your characters and of human nature in general.

The opposite is much harder. That's like integration in Calculus, the inverse operation of derivation. Integration is not possible for every function, and even where it is, it can be fiendishly difficult to accomplish. That's like starting with a consequence and trying to find a setup that would cause that consequence to happen naturally. Some consequences just don't have any possible antecedents, and even when they do, they can be very hard to find.

In general, I prefer derivation to integration. But sometimes you just have to work backwards in order to achieve a certain goal.

Parallel Structure

I'm a big fan of parallel structure, and I'm noticing it creeping in at the edges of my plans for the novel. There's going to be a long arc for one character that parallels another arc for another character, one that has already taken place. I think it's going to wind up adding lots of additional power to the story because of it.

First, it's going to be interesting to see two very different environments compared with each other. The similarities will be surprising. Second, it's going to be interesting to see the differences in the way the situations are handled. What the reader unconsciously expects to happen will be turned on its head. By using the expectations that get built into the parallel structure, I can provide a storyline that is both surprising and satisfying.

What I don't want to happen is to go all George Lucas on it. There is a limit to what parallelism can and should accomplish, and I don't want to drift into the realm of repeating myself. So long as I make the effort to set up expectations and counter them where appropriate, I think I'll be okay.

The Big Picture

Most of my brainstorming lately has been about the big picture of the story--the motivations and character arcs that stretch across the entire series. We've seen only bits and pieces of that so far, although I've discovered that I did manage to seed a pretty good number of hints to start us off. I think the main purpose of the second book is going to be to establish that overarching plot.

I think of it like this--the first book established the characters and the world. We've met, or at least heard about, most of the major players. (There is one exception that you haven't heard about yet, but that won't be too long awfully long in coming.) Some, like the Patroness we've only heard about, but will be meeting very soon. I can't WAIT for that.

But I'm starting to wonder if I've structured book 2 properly to accomplish this. Currently it's bopping back and forth between two time periods. I like that in general, but I'm not sure if it's clear from the story just where everyone is. I kind of think I need to restructure it in this way.

Prologue Part 1: The new section I wrote the other day.
Prologue Part 2: The existing prologue to Book 2

At that point, I should pick up from where Book 1 ended and go through to... to where? I really like the juxtaposition of the end scene of that arc with the end scene of the future arc.

How about this... I could pull a Tolkien and do larger chunks of time together. Follow the earlier time period Bryony arc for a while, then follow the later for a while too? Hmmm... but that would restrict my ability to do certain very important POVs until the third book.

Of course, that raises another point that I've been avoiding even thinking about... is this a trilogy? Is there enough of interest in the earlier time arc to make an entire book of just that? In that case, would the prologue of book 2 become the prologue of book 3 instead? Then book 4 would be the end game? Of course, what about the material that I've developed that comes after the end I had planned? There's so much to explore there, and a natural progression of raising the stakes, too. Would that be book five?

And then there's the possibility of rearranging everything into fewer volumes, or even a single volume. The more ideas I get, the more choices there seem to be about what the future can hold.

I suppose the thing I really need to decide is this: when I start writing again, what section am I going to write? And I think the clear answer is chronologically the simplest. I'm going to write the story in the order that it happened. If I later decide to rearrange for artistic effect, I can do so with only minimal edits. Anything that happened earlier and gets held over for a while becomes a flashback; anything that happened later and is brought up is a flashforward. What could be simpler?

Get your umbrella, it's a brainstorm

After an initial bout of despair that I could ever hope to pick up all the threads, I've come to the conclusion that yes, I actually can do this. Here's how it's been working:

For three chapters now, I've gone through and make notes of every outstanding question I've introduced. Then, I write down the answers, and make note of where and how I plan to reveal it.'

I've been surprised at how often I had a general answer to the question, but nothing really specific. As a result, I've done a lot more writing that I anticipated, just in providing answers to these questions. But the real exercise is pinning down the reveal--it makes me figure out story beats, which in turn drives the scenes I write.

This makes me think that from now on as I write, I should maintain this sort of list. Early on in the story, I'm making it bigger and bigger, then later on I start checking more and more off. By the end of the story, everything should get tied off. That doesn't mean there will be no loose ends at all, but the loose ends will be left loose because I choose to, not because I forgot them.

This may be a long process, but it's one where I know what the next step is, and that's important in a project this big.

Hey... Remember Me?

I used to do this blog every day. What happened to those days? Those were good days. I want 'em back.

And the best way to do that is to start today (carpe hodie?) and begin as I mean to go on. So... here's the plan.

I want to get back into Bryony's Market. Even more--I want to finish it. I just completed a reread of everything I've done so far, followed by a reread of the blog posts I wrote concurrently. So to start my marathon NYC-based writing session today, I'm going to give my thoughts on that reread.

First, I enjoyed the story. Nearly a year's distance allowed me to examine the story with more of a reader's eye than a writer's, and I found myself laughing at some of the jokes, flipping pages to get to what happens next, and feeling tantalized by the little hints that I left behind. This tells me two things--I've spent insufficient time editing the story, and it's better than I was afraid of.

Second, the computer problems ended it at a bad spot. In my memory, I had written much further than that unanswered question in the carriage, and I was intensely saddened by the fact that, as of yet, the story went no further. I know I'm the only one who can do something about that, though, and I plan to do so. That's why I'm here.

Finally, the pace is better than I was afraid of. Several times throughout the course of the blog I was afraid that the story was getting bogged down. Reading through it, however, I discovered that on the contrary, other passages felt rushed. In the course of editing the series as a whole, I may augment several scenes, or even add entirely new ones in order to tweak the pacing.

I have developed a plan for resuming the dropped threads of the story:

• Reread all text, notes, and blog posts - COMPLETE
• Second reread, taking notes on plot threads
• Scene brainstorming
• Sort scenes into basic outline
• Start writing where I left off.

And when I say where I left off, I mean it. The first new section of story will take place at my usual 10pm update on November 26th, which is the one year anniversary of when that section should have been written. It's still Day 57, if not the one I had originally intended. That's not to say that I won't be writing at all before that, but that's when updates will begin. Anything else is a buffer, and there ain't nothing wrong with that. If at all possible, I want to build up a nice long buffer for Christmas.

And then I just start cranking out the daily 1,689 like I used to back in the day. As easy as that.

Well, I've spent the last hour talking about it. Now it's time to actually do it!