Glad you asked!
The outline is underway.
I have to admit, as I stated in my last post, having Scrivener has really improved my writing life. I had so many years worth of content, annexes to keep track of characters, locations, culture per kingdom, maps I had drawn along with notebooks and various scraps of napkins and paper table cloths with random ideas scribbled (sometimes in crayon). Now it is all in one place... except the very first draft of the novel, which I have in three binders on my desk (they're covered in marker and red pen already from previous re-writes so I'm probably better off using those anyway.) Now that I've gotten myself mostly organized, I've started remaking the annexes and writing out character bios for the main characters. My character bios are pretty extensive and it took me almost a whole day to finish one bio, despite the fact that I know these characters better than I know my children and longer than I've known even my own husband.
I've pretty much been eating, breathing, sleeping the story for the past week. Which is great, but kind of awkward when I'm flooded with ideas in the middle of the train during rush-hour on the way to work, with no way to whip out my pen and paper to write it down because I'm standing (you'd think being 8 months pregnant someone would give me a seat, right? That's a rant for another day though,) and we're all packed in that car like sardines - forgive the cliche. ACK!
I've gone off on a tangent.
Anyway, I'm starting the read-through of the various versions and taking notes for how I want to arrange the new outline. I'm hoping to have it prepared by next week, which is a full month earlier than I originally scheduled. YAY ME! Current estimated start-date for beginning the new first draft is April 1st. I'm hoping to put myself on a writing schedule to get somewhere between 2000-5000 words per day written (5 days per week) to have it finished somewhere before end of May (which happens to be when new baby is due. The thinking is, it'll be a whole lot harder to keep any sort of schedule with new baby here). So, we're off to a good start and ahead of schedule.
When I'm not working on the outline, I've been doing a lot of research - looking at other authors in similar genres' cover art - or more specifically, scoping out cover artists that I like and may want to work with. Snooping through the Best Covers on Goodreads, I found quite a few (mostly on DeviantArt) whose work I adore...
Unfortunately, I ended up getting distracted looking at the reviews people posted on Goodreads for a lot of these books and got a little freaked at just how harsh some of them are. I know it's honesty (I've done my share of brutally honest critiques, but usually for people who are looking for advice on a work in progress). I think I need to steel myself ahead of time for the tough love reviews. It comes with the territory and you can't expect everyone to like your work. I'm just not ready to be thinking about someone ripping my work a new one when I haven't even gotten it finished yet. It tarnished my excitement a little.
I'm also trying to break out of my socially awkward anti-social shell and attempting to connect a bit more (thus Goodreads... oh and I'm learning how to use Twitter, which I have avoided like the plague for years. I always wondered what that hashtag nonsense was about... still not really sure I get it either.) Anywho, I'm trying to connect instead of disconnect, which takes effort for me. If you see me around on the social sites, say hi. I promise to try and not freak out (see sad little Everyn cowering in the corners of her Twitter page, hyperventilating.)
And now, back to work!
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