Novel Decisions - The Firechild Series

I have finally settled on which novel to tackle first.

Despite my desire to complete my stand alone novel “Lusus Naturae”, I have finally decided on the more daunting task of finishing the first book in my fantasy series (which I have tentatively titled "The Firechild Series”.)

I suppose I was avoiding this decision because, to be honest, the fantasy series is a MESS right now. I started the first draft 16 years ago (for those of you doing the simple math, I was 14 and a freshman in high school). I started "Lusus Naturae" the same year – I guess it was a good year for inspiration and my muse was in a pretty good mood back then.

I have written and re-written the first novel of the "Firechild Series" at least six times since then.

I have written it in first person perspective, I’ve written it in third person perspective,

I’ve written it from one character’s POV and from multiple characters’ POV.

I have written it starting in their youth and progressing into adulthood and I have written it from their adult perspectives with childhood flashbacks.

I have written the first book of this series in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY IMAGINABLE. So, when I say this is a daunting task, I am not exaggerating.

The next step is to get all of it organized and sift through it to decide how the final version should be written (picking a perspective and a story arc progression would help).

I need to gather ALL of the versions and read through the whole of my work - decide what I want to keep, what works and what doesn’t, what scenes I’ve grown out of (because I did start writing this when I was 14 and some of the content from back then was…. ummmm, childish). I plan to take the important bits that I intend to keep and use the “flashcard method" to get the scenes organized and work out a reasonable format and outline (like a movie storyboard, only with words and pretty colored markers). Once I have this in place, the actual re-writing will be a lot easier.

Granted, I’d have to do something similar when I finally re-write "Lusus Naturae", but I have only re-written that novel twice in those 16 years and it is not a series, so there isn’t as much info to work through to get the outline organized.

And there it is. Decision made. I’m starting with Firechild.

Now I’m excited.