By the necessities of this project, I find myself with a far more detailed outline that I ever would have crafted for myself, down to almost the scene-by-scene level. (It actually tracks POV changes, roughly speaking, or major events, but a given POV may have multiple scenes which don't register on the outline.) This is going to produce an interesting effect as I go along. I continue excited and interested by the unusual process.
In terms of the story itself, I've made several major amendments to the outline Jeff originally provided, and emphasized some pivotal events which make the book hang together effectively in my judgment. As I write, that will change — experience suggests that no outline ever survives contact with the manuscript.
And a bit of wip:
To the west: the desert in the first rush of spring, traces of the late snow still spread like dust on a baker's belly as the earliest flowers blush rare color on the unending palette of obsidian and ochre and dust-gray. The harsh smoke of the glassmakers' kilns coils close in black ribbons to write empty glyphs upon the morning air. Far beyond them, the distant saltwater with its unknowable depths. He knows this to be fitting; the desert is little more than the bones of the ocean, and the unthinking sea lies everywhere.
| Originally published at jlake.com. |