Always different, always the same.

[mrissa]

Yesterday I sat down with a stack of notecards and the file of scenes and snippets that make up the current state of The True Tale of Carter Hall. The size of thing I have written down ranges from two completed chapters to single word notes as placeholders ("SNOW"). There's a lot in between. I took the notecards, and I numbered them, and I wrote what should happen in each chapter on the notecard matching its number.

When I was done, I didn't have any great big gaps that I could see, and there was nothing hanging around looking forlorn and out of place. From this I conclude that I have an actual book here, and all I have to do is finish writing it. (All!)

One of the most common bits of writerly wisdom I've heard online and at conventions is that you don't learn how to write a book, you learn how to write this book. Seems to be true. I've never written each chapter on a notecard before. This time it seemed like the obviously reasonable thing to do. I have no idea whether the revision methods I've used on What We Did to Save the Kingdom will be totally sensible on The True Tale of Carter Hall when I finish it, or whether they'll seem awkward and completely unusable. Luckily, I'm not really tied to either idea.

Onwards.

Comments

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

am very happy to read there's progress on "carter hall"! besides the 3 chapters you sent me how many more are there?

what state is "what we did ..." in? finished, in progress? (i.e. can i read it? ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Those are not chapters. Those are short stories. They're sequels to The True Tale, not parts of it.

What We Did is waiting for alpha readers to get back to me. You can read it in the beta cycle if you like. I'll make sure I've got your name on the list.