Behind the Scenes Mechanics

My lovely Cori had succeeded in kicking me in the butt (metaphorically).

After the kick in the butt (metaphorically), I was brimming with energy. I wanted to write this book. I needed to write it.

I pulled out paper and pen (I didn't have my laptop yet) and started scribbling away.

And that's all I was doing: scribbling. Sure, I had ideas. Sure, the whole story was there in my head trying to pop out. That was the problem: the entire story was trying to pop out all at once. If you don't already know this, take it from me: trying to get a dozen ideas out all at the same time doesn't work.

After a few pages of garbled junk, I sat back in frustration. I needed to do something about this. I needed to organize my ideas into one cohesive, chronological list.

Well, though I hadn't written much since high school, I still remembered some of the lessons. I realized an outline was needed. So I sat and started getting my ideas out in point form, line by line. Each fully developed idea became a scene...scenes that tied in became chapters. Oh sure, I had to move a few scenes around, chapter 6 became chapter 8, chapter 7 became chapter 6; all for the sake of clarity and, well frankly, entertainment.

When I put my pen down, I had about thirty pages of notes.

And the basic outline of The Path of the Sword.

And then the fun started.