Reshufflin’

It’s a curious thing, the writing process.

Monday night and Tuesday morning were really good for the words.  Like really good.  I wrote a whole bunch of them, a whole big bunch, and made really good progress on my WIP.  I also discovered that one of the plot points I had in my outline no longer worked at all, so I chucked that out and reworked some stuff.  And then I realized that one of the plot points I wanted in wasn’t on the outline, so I wrote that in.  And the last time I looked, I was solidly in the home stretch, because about five chapters from now, I’ll have a complete first draft.    Now that I’ve reworked the plot and it actually makes sense, I can see the end of the story very clearly.

That’s sort of an awesome feeling.

But the other thing that happened, is that the trilogy reshuffled itself as well.  What I originally thought was going to be the third book, is now actually going to be the second.  As the characters have solidified themselves and become clearer, I now see the way the stories are structured and how they need to change places.  It’s better for the overall narrative.  The other good thing is that these two guys are just awesome and I’m excited to tell their story.

But that’s next.  That’s after.  First I have to get this first story complete.  And I am laser focused on this story, because without it, nothing else can happen.

Here’s what I know for a fact though:  working from a rough plot outline helped immensely with this story.  Even though I had to reshuffle and replot, having that already on the page has made all of that so much easier.  Everything was right there before my eyes, which let me see what didn’t work.  Now, before I’ve always gotten the point where I jotted the story out in notes.  But I’ve never quite done it like this before.  I fully intend to attempt it again with story number two, and see if I can repeat the results. If only because I’ll inevitably need to reshuffle, and having it there in front of me makes that inordinately easier.