Doing the outline was hard
It may end up looking more like a timeline, but that outline was the hardest writing exercise to date. I can typically think in terms of short stories - in this case the opening ones for Jenny and Dagar. But putting down the rough outline of a novel in one sitting is both exhilarating and exhausting.
The hardest part was not diving into writing anything - I gave detail where it was needed as a plot point or I didn’t want to forget it.
The outline isn’t carved in stone. It definitely went places I hadn’t imagined. I.e., it was alive in my head. An example of it drifting from my vision was the sheer scale of death by the Plague and the resultant animosity between Earther/Grounder and Spacer/Clan. I wanted that to be there, but I didn’t know it was going to be so virulent.
I know the next hardest thing I will ever do is taking the outline into a story. I’m trying to determine how I can both serialize that and spread the load to minimize impact to the rest of my life.
And of course, dialog scares me….
