if you read my previous post, you will find that I wrote the entire trilogy of my Shattuk Downs series. After an initial rewrite, they stand at 260,000 words in total. How did I do them all in four months?
I used a bit of the snowflake method. After I finished the first novel, I had it out to First Readers and they didn’t like a particular scene. I fixed it and that powered the thought processes through to the last page of the third volume.
I wrote out scene descriptions for each scene for each of the novels. Since the first one was complete, I didn’t have to do one for that one, but I did book two and book three at the same time. This gave me a chance to put sufficient continuity into each volume as I drafted the books. (I used Scrivener so I could easily toggle to my backup pages)
As I wrote the novel from the scene descriptions, I also kept up on a document with rewrite notes for all three volumes. This gave me the chance to go back and document plotlines in the subsequent novels that I had to foreshadow in the previous ones as I went through the rewrite process. Again, I was able to toggle back to my rewrite notes as I wrote. I used the split window feature of Scrivener and it really enhanced the writing experience.
For the most part the process went pretty well. Since I don’t faithfully adhere to the scenes, but allow the creative juices to flow, I cut a plotline out that really wasn’t needed in the last novel. As I rewrote each of the novels, I would consult with my rewrite notes and change things around to make the books a more cohesive whole.
Since I’m still not complete with First Readers for the second and third books, we’ll see how they come out.
My next novel with the the Sword of Spells/Brull novel. The Sword of Spells book is still my best seller and I’ve got the gist of the book’s plot completed. I had scene descriptions already written, but in order to make the book more fresh as I write it, I’ll be re-doing those. Then we’ll see if this process really works.
Very impressive. Sounds like you have a great system going there.