Novel90 Challenge | Days 17 - 23

I decided to do the Novel90 Challenge. Here's how it's going.

The main thing this week was to get the outline figured out. I needed to expand it some so that it was a little closer to what could be considered a complete book.

Last week I realized how much I had figured out for the second half of the story, but not the first. So I did some reflecting and figured out a few details that make things much more complete and viable.

One method I use to expand a story or outline is almost a brain dump. Like.... a guided brain dump.

In this case, I took an even that I wanted in the book to propel the story, and asked 'how do we know this thing happened?' The actual event happens off-screen, if you will. So how do we discover it?

My MC does have slight precognition abilities, but that felt like too much of a lantern. So I had to figure out another way.

Which, luckily, also helped me figure out where we are in my opening.

I love when one thing helps another. Especially when it actually also helped me figure out some following scenes, where they are, and why.

So now I have a decent outline. Generally.

I have been informed by beta readers and other feedback for book 2 that the romance subplot needs some work, so part of my time going forward will be doing research into romance subplots and how to make it land, not just feel like romance for the sake of romance.

Side note: I'm going to try a method I learned about from another author I follow, Megan Maclaine, where you find a book with similar structure, and go through it with sticky notes, essentially making an outline of that novel and it's scenes.

Can I find a book with similar structure? Hopefully. I've struggled with finding comps before, but I think in this case, it's okay if it's not necessarily a comp in terms of story, just overall structure. (To be honest, I think I'm going to try and use one of the Lunar Chronicles books for this experiment. They are good mixes of adventure and romance.)

So, onward! To the rough draft! ...Or Research!