Blueprint

When I decided, "Yes, I'm going to finish.  I'm going to write this book straight through to the ending," I had a challenge ahead of me.  I had all of those pages of fun dreaming and imagination without a clear end in sight.  I had thought of an ending, but I didn't know how I was going to get there.

So I took a hard look at those pages, and I found the structure underneath.  Though I was working backwards, not in an ideal way at all, I put the structure I had on paper.  I saw the foundation and frames of the story so far.  And then I created more frames to finish the structure I had begun.  I noted areas of shaky construction (especially in the first chapter!), and planned to rebuild them.

I still brought that sense of joy and play to my work that I had discovered when I was just creating for pleasure.  But I could see what I was doing.  And believe it or not, the presence of that plan removed a lot of stress from me!  I never felt again that sense of panic I had when I saw my book as overgrown.  Because I had a blueprint, I could think more about details than direction.  I could put energy into the finish work, not the structure.

What I built this time is a different shape and style than I imagined at first.  When I used to dream about publishing a book, I assumed I would write something serious for adults, something that would pay tribute to Jane Austen or C.S. Lewis.  Instead, I wrote a book for kids that pays tribute to Gene Roddenberry and J.M. Barrie.  Who would have thought?

Read Dawn Hyperdrive and the Galactic Handbag of Death!  You can try the first chapter for free at my website and then buy a copy at Amazon or at Smashwords.