Back from NY and back to the manuscript

I’m back and, oh! I took so many notes at the New York winter conference. They’re all illegible in gibberish, but hopefully the important bits are rooted in my subconscious and closer to the surface when I need them. I loved every second of being there. If you are interested in the SCBWI and are able to get to New York next year, I highly recommend the conference!

Now I am back at work, and I have completed the outline (I kind of left you out of a lot of the process, didn’t I?)

I wanted to outline everything I saw happening in the story so that I didn’t have to spend a lot of my second draft adding in all the alludes to future events—and I loved it. Going through the outlining felt how I remember my draft writing used to feel before I started this gross habit of getting stuck—full of adventure, not knowing what was going to happen next, and the joy of discovery. And the trepidation I felt of trying to keep 90k words organized has also dissipated. After trying to write this story for the last ten years, I think I can do this!

My outline, by the way, ended up being 13,300 words. It is now in the hands of my mentor—the one thing I insisted I get when I won the grant—so once I get her notes, there will be a refining before the actual writing starts.