Okay, maybe “Beats are hard” is a little hyperbolic. They’re only hard in comparison to something, and when I’m in a complain-y mood, beats are hard compared to sitting and drowsing on the couch. But if I’m honest, beats are actually easier that the regret I’ll feel if I don’t finish them!
In my last post, I mentioned that I was working on the beats for “Divinity Descending” (it was called “Divinity Falling”). Then, I had about 10 chapters outlined. Now, I have over forty. I’ve finished the Setup and the Response (based on Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering, which you can buy it here — I can’t recommend it enough!), which means that according to Billy Wilder’s plot nomenclature, my main character is up in the tree, and the tree’s now fully engulfed in flames.
I’m really enthusiastic about that description!
Not only do I have the beats sketched for 40+ chapters, but I’ve greatly refined the map of the North American continent since the time of my screen shot comparing Scrivener to Storyist.
I’ve also greatly expanded the list of characters and locations. A lot of the story happens in Columbiana, Ohio, which rests northwest of the remains of Columbus. It’s basically the result of Delaware, Ohio and Marysville, Ohio. I’m not sure if the backstory will make it into the novel (at least the first novel), but Colonial America made several deep incursions into The Middle States, and both Columbus and Cleveland were nearly destroyed.
Fortunately for the story, Old Cleveland is fertile ground: The ghast has taken up residence there. What, a ghast? You can read a little about the ghast in this post.
I still hope to get a mailing list up and running soon, because if I’m going to independently publish this, I’ll need to have folks (like you?) interested ahead of time.
If you’ve read this far, thanks! I hope this sounds interesting to you.
See you next post!
