This week I finally finished up the overall arc of the story and am now concentrating on breaking things down into books. I want to get Book I drafted out (the new version) so I can see if there are any new threads to help fill in the middles.

I want each Book section to build off the prior one, but have a contained arc/story within it. Which means Book II is pretty much being made up whole-cloth. So, yay?

Day 8

• Worked out the small inner arcs for each of the four acts of the new story
• Started digging into ideas for how to rework things so each act has a satisfying start and conclusion even though it’s part of the bigger story.
• Updated formatting on old parts 40-50

Day 9

• Ditzed around with ideas, but nothing was working. Got lots of things that I won’t be doing though! 😂
• Will make up words tomorrow.
• Started working on renaming the various fictives… which is much harder than I thought it’d be.

Day 10

• Heavy-duty brainstorming on Book I. Working out character arcs, conflicts, and resolutions (within the larger arc of the story).
• Still a little light on ideas for Book II, but there are some ghosts of things I might be able to play with. I need to hammer down Book I first.

Day 11

• Took a day off.

Day 12

• Flame’s backstory warped from a vague idea into a proper embracement of tropes. He’s now setup to be a proper villain for Book I and eventual mentor by Book IV. Victory!
• Also now I have an idea for a comic on his backstory… and some oracle slang (and thoughts on the cultural adaptions to the gift

Day 13

• Broke out the index cards and made a card for each day up to the arrival at Oak Grove. Wrote out all the plot points that happened each day and which POV would be covering it.
• Started to think about better names for the three towns and if maybe it’s someone else who lives in Two Beaches instead of May.
• Worked out with the map about how far a five-day cart ride from Pine Reaches to Oak Grove would be (about 250 miles) and how fast foxhawks could fly that (five hours).

Day 14

• Started to put some serious brainstorming into Foxhawk society and what their living spaces/towns would look like. When you have something that’s half-fox and half-hawk– it mucks with that a bit. (Even if they dig the warrens using magic.)
• Did a little bit of prose, but couldn’t hammer out what the best start to the story will be. I may doodle-draft it via storyboard…