You know, I've never been an outliner. I tend to be a by-the-seat-of-my-pantser, which drives my best friend a little crazy. In my defense, I only end up tossing the outline when the story, inevitably, steers itself in another direction.
It happened a LOT with Dark Ember. I mean, a LOT. What was supposed to be a glorified cave leading to a portal became a massive dark market for magic under Reunion Tower in Dallas, which led to a new character I hadn't anticipated but fell in love with anyway.
However, with two new novels in production, I think I need an outline. I'm working on Fractured Guardian's sequel, The Demon's Genesis as well as my Versailles x True Blood piece which I have recently named 'Here Inside the Dark' or HID from here on out. I want to get some worldbuilding done so I have a new disc bound notebook en route and making copies today.
I love this part. I love worldbuilding (Or, in this case world-expanding). I like finding new bad guys and plot lines and all kinds of fun stuff.
DE is still out with betas, I'm sort of working on queries. I'm going to break my week into query/writing/outlining for the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping I can shave more months from my first drafts if I'm a little more prepared. I like having an idea of what I need to do in the morning before I get up so I don't wander the internet aimlessly while waiting for my coffee to kick in.
So, here's to a productive week. Though, my baby turns five this week and softball is still crawling all over me. My migraine is UNDER CONTROL at last, I ordered new glasses and my first pair of prescription sunnies. I'm having a fucking fabulous week so far.
I hope you're all doing well. Happy writing!
-C.A.