Writing a novel: the sequel to
Degranon: A Science Fiction Adventure.
I’m still revising
Worried and will probably continue for most of 2011. Worried is my first novel to write from scratch. The others started as short stories that I kept expanding over the years.
After starting with an outline, I wrote Worried’s thirty-three chapters over the past few years. Of course, the final version might contain more or less chapters.
I hand wrote each chapter, later revising them as I typed them. Revisions of each chapter continued, between writing new chapters.
With all of them finished, I went back and added more scenes. One conflict, for example, ended too quickly, so I rewrote that scene. Leaving the resolution incomplete led to new scenes that, I think, provide some of the novel’s most exciting moments.
Worried’s final chapters strayed from the outline, as I knew they might. Some of the relationships between characters also developed in ways other than what I had imagined. I stay open to possibilities. An outline provides a helpful roadmap, but it can always go in the glove compartment—or out the window—in favor of something better.
Other revisions from here largely involve word choice, clarification, and description. They also stress consistency with the novel’s brief timeline, and with the first book in the series.
Will there be more in the series? I would like to write at least one more. I love these characters, and this new book develops them much more, making me want to explore what happens to them next. I might think I know, but I won’t find out until I write it.
For more, see
Chapter 1 Draft at Goodreads and
Worried Teaser, Spoiler Alert.
Click on the Worried tag below, to read more about writing Worried.
