Wednesday, December 20, 2023:
Outlining, because I am definitely a planner not a pantser as a writer.
Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
Daily Diary, Wednesday, December 20, 2023, Day 1205:
Yesterday was indeed cooler than it’s been, and it is still projecting rain later in the week, but who knows? Monday it was supposed to rain, and be cool, and it didn’t rain and got up to 78 degrees!
As I hoped, yesterday was spent starting the next stage of preparing for the last part of the novel. I started out by figuring out roughly when the action was going to take place in the rest of the book. All the chapters until now have covered only five days in January 168 AA( which means 168 years after the arrival on the new planet).
This section of the book (which I see building up to the climax) jumps forward a little over two months and should cover no more than two weeks. Then comes the epilogue, which will be about three months later. I will figure the actual days of the week and dates as I go along (although this often gets changed over time as the action expands or contracts.)
Then I listed the places where the rest of the action will take place, in what order. Again, this could change, but I don’t think it will. In each setting, there will be at least two chapters, again, this in my experience is more likely to expand than contract.
Finally, I started filling in the detail for chapters for the first two settings. This includes who would be participating in a chapter, and what plot needed to be included within each of the different chapters. This morning, after doing my walk, I will complete the second setting, and then I hope I might actually start to write. Once I have written these first two sections, I will do the same process of filling in for the next chunk.
Meanwhile, time to show you some more outdoor ornaments, loving seeing them in the gathering dark.
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