My goal for the “Spring Round” of ROW80 is to write a heroic fantasy novel set within my “Sword & Sorcery” story-world. When finished, this novel will be approximately 80,000 words, but for this 80-day challenge, my goal is to keep the first draft to 60,000 words (750 words a day — ambitious but achievable). This will help me focus on the main storyline first. Once I have the main storyline roughed-out, I can weave in the various subplots that support the main storyline in a second-draft, which I figure will add about 20,000 words to the final manuscript. I have a relatively structured outline going into this round, with all the major story-events and plot-points arranged into a somewhat coherent chronological order. This approach is a much-needed improvement from previous goals, where I was working on several story-ideas at one time, including my fall-back position of world-building. And even though this has provided me with most of my story-ideas so far, it has yet to produce a finished manuscript. I hope to change that this round with a more-focused intention of one — and only one — story project.
I chose this story idea from my many story-candidates because it was the most developed, especially since it has an elaborate “villain’s plan”. Each chapter has specific scene goals and set-pieces, with designated word-count goals to keep the entire three-act structure in balance. On the first pass, I’ll be concentrating on roughing-out the main storyline, especially the hero and villain story-threads. I have a pretty good idea how I want the story to end, so I’ll probably start choreographing my “climatic moment” first and work my way backwards into the “black moment” so that my hero goes into the third act determined and focused on the villain’s destruction, leading to a final conflict that is emotionally satisfying to the reader. Once I have a solid ending, I can work myself backwards to the story’s beginning, which has the hero in the opposite state of his character-arc from the ending. I’ll discuss my outlining process further in future posts. Just know that I have a plan this time and I’m going to attempt to follow that plan.
Also, I have set up a structured writing schedule for myself that I think will keep me in the habit of writing consistently each day. I will be doing a comprehensive, week-in-review weekend-wrap-up style check-in about my progress on Sundays, but the mid-week Wednesday check-ins, at this point, will be optional for me this round. The mid-week check-ins have been a stumbling point for me in the past and, because of that, I want to set myself up for success this round. So for now, mid-week check-ins for me are optional. That may change later, depending on whether I have something exciting to say or whether my limited weekday time permits, but because I work forty-hours a week during the weekdays, I have limited time to write in the evenings and want to spend that time story-crafting instead of blogging. I’ll make up for it on the weekend when I have a week’s worth of subject matter and progress to report. Anyway, that’s the plan. I have my project file set up and ready to go. Until next week…
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Keep the Fire Burning!
