He Said, She Said

6/4/19 Word Count: 2278

I did something different today. I’m sure I’m like many writers in that I have a full-time day job that I have to balance with my writing goals. I started a mini-journal on my phone for my brainstorming notes for my book. During my short breaks at work, I started outlining the chapters I thought I would be working on last night. Not step by step detail. Just the main stuff.

What is the goal of the chapter? What information does the reader gain from reading it? What key points need to be made and from which character’s POV? Is there any imagery I want to use? When I imagine the scene, is there anything original that I’ve not created yet that I’ll need ready to go (example: a character, a magical item, a historical reference, and so forth).

I managed to outline a couple of chapters and had my notes ready to go when I got home. It did seem to help.

Tonight’s chapter was mostly dialogue. For some reason, dialogue comes faster to me than words. I suppose it’s because it’s easier to write down what my characters are saying than it is for me to successfully describe something that only I can see in my head.

My MC (main character) had a date with an old flame. They violated the usual Tinder rules about talking about exes on the first date, but now they’ve gone into some strange territory to avoid talking about uncomfortable topics such as the recent death of my MC’s best friend. Back and forth. He said, she said.

Dialogue is such a good character reveal. Sometimes it reveals things you didn’t even know were there.

6/4/19 Muse Magic:

Not as much inspiration tonight as last night. Then again, a good bit of things were planned out before I sat down at the desk. I did come up with a few good bits of imagery that I’m pleased with. Reworked a bit of an earlier chapter to include a subtle hint about something that would happen later in the book — that took some time. It’s always hard to go back and modify a chapter that already flows well in order to splice in a good idea. Was it worth it? Probably. Note to self: plan that shit better.