Continuing the Women's Perspective

For those of you who've been following this blog for at least a month, you know that I wrote a short story from the perspective of a woman that my college class loved. For those of you who have just joined us, feel free to re-read the post in which I talk more about that (that big link I cleverly hid in the text of my blog).

One thing it seems I failed to mention is that some of the women in my class started suggesting, or even demanding, that I continue the story, if only for one more scene. Obviously I had struck a chord and written something these students not only identified with, but felt the need to be completely lost in.

I don't take this lightly. This is the highest compliment I've ever received regarding my writing.

I knew I'd have to get around to writing more eventually, but for the time being simply decided I would add only one more scene to the short story, and get around to planning a novel in the future when I felt more prepared for such a task.

A creative mind is rarely a patient one in this kind of situation.

At completely random times during the following days, an idea would form out of thin air that my brain latched on to and held tightly for use in the novel. They were not simply "ideas," though, they matched the tone and plot that I was going for perfectly. It was as if I was finding hidden pieces of a puzzle that I had long given up on, and I suddenly needed to complete the puzzle.

Having received the writing program Scrivener as a graduation present from my parents (thanks mom and dad!) I set out a bit of time for myself one day and plotted the outline for what I expected to be a three-part story. I've never really attempted to outline a whole novel before, but Scrivener made it so easy and fun that once I started I became completely consumed with the task! After an hour or so, I had a draft outline for a novel in four parts with potential for a sequel!

To put this into perspective, the last time I tried to write a novel I saw it as a challenge, and eventually lost interest in it, instead opting to write a collection of short stories. This time, I see it as something incredibly fun to do, feel more capable and ready to do it, and it happens to be based on one of those short stories! In short, I feel a bit better about this attempt at a novel than my last.

A usual, I'll keep you updated, and thanks for reading!
-Ryan