Thankfully this project is much more solid than the other NaNo’s, so it’s more about pulling out the extraneous bits and filling in the gaps.

I’ve broken the overall story into Books that each end with a climactic event. Mostly likely they’ll get broken down further into posts, but for now I’m just getting each step of the story roughed out.

Book I : That Which Comes Before covers the introduction of Baron and Maybelle up through their pair-bonding at the Hatching.

What I’m Starting With

Starting Wordcount: 10,217

The following posts are the rough drafts from last July. The first thing I need to do is read through them and categorize them into ‘keep’, ‘toss’, ‘DVD extra’, and ‘Amusing NaNo Stupidities’.

The Keeps will get cut and pasted into a new text file, the toss not be copied over, the DVD Extras will be sorted out into rough draft piles for Flash Fiction’ing later, and the NaNo Stupidities will be posted for your entertainment.

So… en garde! 😀

Maybelle’s Introduction Posts

These can all be cut and/or turned into DVD extras since the relevant details can be moved over into the ‘Hatching Day at Pine Reach’ segment.

• Quiet Morning Baking – toss, possible DVD extra
• It’s Almost Hatching Day! – toss
• Aaron’s Letters – toss
• Graduation Day – toss

Baron’s Introduction Posts

This is a much strong opening, plus starting from the Foxhawk POV is a different stab at the genre… although I need to trim back on the amount of Woe Is Me that’s going on.

• And Thus the Future Dies – Keep
• Other Fish in the Sea – toss, possible DVD extra

Hatching Day

All of these are Keeps. This is the meat of Book I and sets the stage not only for the eventual team-up climax, but also a lot of the worldbuilding. There’s a lot of trimming that needs to be done since I put in a metric ton of details that the book doesn’t actually need. *grabs editing chainsaw*

• Hatching Day at Pine Reach – Keep
• The Great Spouse Hunt – Keep
• Hatching Caverns – Keep
• The Fledglings Arrive – Keep
• Of Hopes and Futures – Keep
• Things Get Better – Keep
• Farris vs. Baron – Keep
• Future Trees and Possibilities – Keep
• And lo, They Fight! – Keep
• The First Night – Keep
• Try Try Again – Keep
• No Future Trees – Keep
• The Clichéd Hatching is Upon Us! – Keep
• Baron Watching Hatching – Keep
• May Watches the Hatching – Keep
• Rescue! – Keep
• Choices – Keep

Rough Draft Away!

New Starting Wordcount: 6,817

This is my starting wordcount for the first book. Anything written over this will count as ‘new’ words, although I’m probably going to be deleting almost as much as I’m adding. I figure that’s my Rebel Tax for not playing by the rules.

So look for a new Book I draft post in the next few days… *crosses fingers*