The Work Before the First Word
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I thought I was finished with the outline for Vegas Warrior.
Naturally, that was when I discovered I wasn’t.
I’d spent days working out the story, building scenes, checking connections, and making sure the rules of my world stayed consistent. I had gone from two lightly established characters to a book with somewhere to go.
So I turned some attention to Vegas Siren, another unfinished story I wanted to revisit.
Apparently, working on one book is an excellent way to discover what still needs attention in another.
As I reworked Vegas Siren, I realized that Vegas Warrior still needed more beneath the action. The events were taking shape, but some of the characters weren’t as emotionally connected or as fully developed as I wanted them to be.
Knowing what happens isn’t quite the same as knowing what it means to the people it happens to.
That sent me back to the outline last night.
Eventually, I got tired. The characters would have to wait until I’d had some sleep.
This morning, I remembered it was Monday.
“Oh, right. I need a blog.”
I had become so absorbed in preparing a book that I’d briefly forgotten to write about preparing a book.
There may be a lesson in there somewhere.
Writing a book is a little like crocheting.
Before you can make much of anything, you need your yarn, the right-sized hook, and those first loops. You have to give yourself something to work from.
Then, after you’ve made a few pieces, you may look at what’s taking shape and realize you want to make something different from what you originally imagined.
The work you’ve already done still matters. It helped you see the possibilities.
That’s how outlining works for me.
My original idea gives the story its shape. The details become a road map for getting there, but I don’t always know which direction I’m going when I begin. Making that map is part of the work.
When I started preparing Vegas Warrior, I had two characters and the beginnings of an idea.
I didn’t even have a bad guy.
I also hadn’t established all the rules for this part of the lore, because I was moving into a part of my universe I hadn’t explored yet.
Those things take time. I have to decide what belongs to my world, how much draws from other mythology, and how those pieces connect to the worlds I’ve already built. An interesting idea still has to fit, or I have to understand what it changes.
Sometimes that means adding something new. Sometimes it means going back to an earlier idea and discovering that it has more possibilities than I realized.
And sometimes, after the events are laid out, I discover I still need to understand the people living through them.
That’s where I am now.
The plot has taken shape, but some of the characters need more depth and a stronger emotional connection. I know more about what they’re going to do. Now I’m working on what those experiences mean to them.
Normally, by this point, I probably would have started writing the book.
But Vegas Warrior is my project for the November writing challenge. The goal is to write at least 50,000 words during November, and the rule for this challenge is that I can’t write any manuscript prose until November 1.
So I’m not.
Instead, I’m spending more time with the outline, checking consistency, working through the lore, and discovering places where the characters still need more depth.
I’m still learning how much preparation works best for me. How detailed does an outline need to be before I move on? When do I have enough to begin?
This time, the starting date has been decided for me. In an unexpected way, that’s encouraging me to make sure the story is in better shape before I write it.
I have my yarn, my hook, and those first loops. I’m still checking the pattern before I begin the actual piece.
That doesn’t mean I’m sitting around waiting.
I’ve also been revisiting Vegas Siren. That one isn’t my November challenge book, so I’m free to write it whenever I want. I haven’t gotten lost in its manuscript yet, though. I’m still enjoying discovering what the story could become.
And both books have something available to them now that didn’t exist when I first imagined them: connections to Dragon World.
When I started putting together the original ideas for Vegas Siren and Vegas Warrior, I hadn’t developed Dragon World. I hadn’t taken off in that direction yet.
Now I have, and returning to these earlier stories means seeing possibilities I couldn’t have anticipated then.
It doesn’t mean every connection was planned from the beginning.
It means the universe has grown, and that growth is changing how I see the stories still waiting to be written.
A new thread in one part of the universe can change what I’m making somewhere else.
Which brings me back to the crocheting.
Sometimes you need to work a little further before you can see what you actually have. And sometimes, when you return to a piece you set aside, you realize you now have just the right yarn to do something with it.
Later today, I’ll be back with Vegas Warrior, working on the people behind the plot.
November is coming. I’d like to know them a little better before we begin.
While these new stories are taking shape, you can meet the world they come from in Vegas Viking on Substack, or explore the books already available in my store.