The State of the Novel, mid-November 2010

Sometimes in writing a story, you're the construction worker, laying brick on narrative brick. Other days, you're the architect, whose task it is to figure out where all the parts need to go to make a completed structure.

Today was an architecture day, and although I didn't get any actual writing done this morning, I can't help but feel like I made significant progress.

I have finished my plan for Book 1. Not just the arcs, or the main story beats I need to hit, but a serious scene-by-scene plan. There are a total of 106 scenes, of which I have currently finished 70. That's approximately 2/3 of the way done.

At my current rate of progress, that means I should have the whole thing finished in (gulp) another forty or fifty days.

Now, I should probably take a step back and define what I mean by the whole thing. As this story has grown, the scope of it has widened, and certain events that at first I considered to be "backstory" are now full-blown revelations, and major movers of plot. As a result, a lot more has to happen to get to the ending I've been planning all along.

The current volume will end once I've written another 36 scenes. The way that usually divides up, we're talking another 18-20 chapters, probably. In terms of word count, maybe 250k. As a point of reference, most epic fantasy lives in the 200k - 300k range, with the occasional giant tome around 400k+. So I'll be in good company, length-wise.

After that, I'll be taking a short break from Bryony. I have a few other projects I want to work on, or finish, and the end of a volume is a good place to pause. The next stage will be some good heavy plotting. So far, I have stick figures drawn for the next two volumes of a proposed trilogy. I need to turn those stick figures into skeletons, then turn part of that skeleton into flesh and blood. (That is to say, I need to take the sketches of events that I have and build up my scene structure, then heavily develop and write the scenes in the early part of the novel.)

And so the process goes on. I hesitate to set any dates because I've proven myself wrong so many times before. But this time feels different.

January 31st, 2011: Completion of Volume 1
February-March 2011: Other projects
April 2011: Plotting and development of Volume 2
April 2011 - July 2011: Volume 2, Part 1
August 2011 - September 2011: Other Projects
October 2011 - December 2011: Volume 2, Part 2
January 2012 - February 2012: Other Projects
March 2012 - May 2012: Volume 2, Part 3

Come back in 18 months and see how I did!