Based on what I’m learning in the Think Sideways class, I’ve stopped writing Tempest. Why, you may ask… Well, I can see that the outline needs some help, and there doesn’t seem to be any point in waiting until I revise this novel to address the issues I’m starting to see. I’m about a third into the first draft, and I’d rather write the second two-thirds having applied all the principles I can.
I’ve started outlining the new novel (for the TS class), tentatively known as Jiya after the main character. About 14 scene summaries landed on the page in little more than an hour, and I’m beginning to see the shape of the story. But where a few weeks ago I felt like Tempest was suffering from the split attention, I’ve changed my mind.
The pendulum is starting to swing back to Tempest. At the moment she is in the best position to benefit from the class, though I’ll keep doing the lessons on Jiya as well, at least at a basic level. The class will, in theory, be starting to write the new novel soon, but I don’t want to set Tempest aside in order to do that. I may try splitting the time, but if that doesn’t work, then Tempest comes first.
After all, she grabbed my mind quite firmly back in June and demanded her tale be told. And there’s a fair bit of it left to tell.