The Purpose of Planning

I was able to get into some planning today which was a nice change. My mind is never far from Edward and the adventures he’s living, but today I was finally able to get some of the ideas down.

I’ve tackled chapter six and I found that I’m up against the hurdles I knew I would eventually be faced with. Changes I’ve made at the beginning are now taking effect, so it’s not as smooth sailing as the first few chapters were. This is the purpose of the planning. I need these questions and concerns answered so when it comes to actually writing I can fly through and not have to puzzle out what happens next – and again be put off writing.

I even went ahead with a list of my chapter titles and changed them all to the alliteration I had started with. It was challenging and fun. I realise it was perhaps a bit premature in that many chapters will be changed beyond recognition which will mean new words will have to be sought. However, it got my mind into working order as I always find it a pleasure to rifle through my well-thumbed thesaurus.

The Right Decision

I sat down with the full intention of writing the plan for the rewrites for Dragonhealer. I completely surprised myself when, after a couple of hours, I’d managed to write the outline for the first four chapters. Sure, the first two were written, the third partially, but I wanted it down so I knew where things were and how they stood. I also thought of a few changes for those first chapters so it was a worthwhile process.

I’ve also gone along with a bit of a theme in my chapter headings. I’ve got each chapter beginning with the same letter. It wasn’t intentional at first but when I got to chapter four and noticed, and then thought of a good word with the same first letter I figured, why not? I’ll only have to explain it to my editor later, but as I know her exceptionally well I’m sure she’ll see the benefit.

I am glad I took this step back. I know for a fact that I would still be fidgeting and twiddling my thumbs waiting for someone else to write it all for me. With a clear cut plan – even if I only manage an outline of each chapter – at least I’ll have something to follow and no excuses not to start writing it.

Changes Taking Place

I’ve been a bit annoyed by my lack of writing, however, as previously mentioned I have solved one of the problems that had me in a bind. I’ve been thinking a great deal about my current project William’s Dragons and have been considering several changes that I feel must be made.

For a start I will no longer be referring to it as William’s Dragons but as Dragonhealer. I feel this gives a better sense of the story. The title for this book has been a thorn ever since I started. I’m happy to say that I’m quite satisfied with this. It’s simpler, gives an idea as to what a reader can anticipate and will tie in nicely with the subsequent sequels.

As the name suggests it is a fantasy and a children’s book besides. I enjoy writing for children even though my published work is for the adult market and a few of my other projects are the same. I wrote this a number of years ago, when I first embarked on writing for publication. It has since scored several rejections (yes, I have kept them) and when I only started to read it again recently I can see why. It’s great to say I’ve written a 75000 word children’s book, it’s the task of making it readable that I’m striving for.

My writing has developed a fair bit over the time, and hopefully matured a little too. It’s all very well to believe you can read something someone has written and think you can do better. It is quite another to be actually able to do it.

So, I am into the third chapter of Dragonhealer. Having rewritten the first two and with a word count of approximately 8200 since 15th July 2008, I’m pleased with the progress. I need to make a better habit of writing more regularly, but I’m finding more kinks and problems that I want sorted lest I am stopped again to figure them out.

My solution is to reread what I have and mark where changes must be made. It may turn out that I have to rewrite the whole darn thing, being so, I can not afford any more of this wasted time in thinking about the problems, but getting on with fixing them.

Title aside, there are a lot of changes in store for the project formerly known as William’s Dragons.