I’ve written before about 750words.com and how useful it is for writers. It not only lets you get in the habit of writing every day, it is totally private, so you can rant about your day or work out plot problems or even use it to write a few scenes.
This past weekend I used it to work out an issue that’s been blocking my progress on Book One of The Other Mages trilogy. There is an initiation scene pending – coming very soon in fact – and I have been at a complete loss as to how to handle it, so I used 750words to talk to myself. Somehow, putting my thoughts down in black and white (and in a format that I can read better than I can my handwriting!) helps me think through problems.
And think through it I did. I have solved the problem of their final tests before initiation – one seemed unnecessarily cruel and the other I had no idea what it would be. The cruelty issue has been resolved and I now know what D’Laron’s test will be.
Yay, me!
I also realized that I have quite a bit of work to do before I get to that scene – I need to lay some in-story groundwork for what is to come.
But that’s all right. At least I know now what I need to do and have a bit more of a plan for how to get there so I can make an outline.
Which reminds me – I started jotting notes for one at work the other night. I don’t suppose that any of you good folks have any idea what I did with it?
Ah, well, it wasn’t that great of an outline anyhow…
(On a brighter note, while searching for it I found notes I’d written to help me around a major problem in The Academy of the Accord series…)
Novel Notes 