Let the Structural Editing Begin!
Capturing a story out of your mind isn't easy. But you're not done when the story has all its words. You still have to consider structure, size, and a host of other turn ons and offs for the readers you hope to attract.
6/27/20262 min read
We are progressing in bringing this world to life. Since I last posted, I've refactored the chapter structure completely. The original manuscript had fifteen large chapters (some with 60 pages) each with a number of "sections" numbered within them. I don't know for sure why I wrote it that way, but that's what felt right in the beginning.
However, as we all know, it's how things feel at the end that really matters, and I've decided to make much smaller, much more approachable chapters. I did it for you dear reader. (Actually, I did it because it made the book better -- no other reason). I've further change the book so it was three parts.
Part 1: Collapse: Deals with the experience of a teenager emerging and just how horrifying it can be.
Part 2: Ashes: Our hero's learns strength and builds new alliances in the wreckage of what came before. Its the beginning stages of putting some form of life back together.
Part 3: Reckoning: (I'm considering changing this to Retribution... we'll see). Know what happens when you poke the bear? Sometimes the bear pokes back.
Another thing that is up in the air: I keep talking about it's a book. And it is a complete story as crafted. However, as a debut author, I'm considering an increasingly large number of ways of making it originally available to readers.
I could put the whole thing into a single manuscript and see out a traditional publisher. This is something I would like to do, but I'm also concerned that this approach is slow. I don't want to spend two years waiting to get it in your hands. Two years from now, I'd like to be done with books two and three already (book two as its first couple chapters plotted with one of them already drafted).
I'm considering self publishing through Amazon. Certainly this is a viable route that many are using these days. I'm also considering releasing purely through my own site/distribution and releasing a new chapter once a week or so, in effect, turning the story into a serial story.
Time will tell where it will all land, but I'm definitely doing my homework. My first and foremost goal isn't figuring out how to attract the most fans possible and give them the best experience I can. I'm not worried about the money nearly as much as getting the chance to tell my story.
We'll talk soon,
-Cujo LaCross