A Place Between, my first completed novel, happened for two reasons: 1) I was given an assignment 2) I made my own deadlines. The assignment was critical because, at the time, I never would have written a novel because I wanted to (even though I did), I did it because someone else wanted and needed it. But critically, since I work full time and have two darling but demanding small children, it could not be done quickly.

Sarah Fontenelle, one of the brains behind the music that inspired the story, knew she wanted a novel that involved twins and knew she wanted to cover themes of hope and death, and of course it should include Kirasu’s music. We talked about her big ideas and I distilled them, as close as I could, into characters with a story to tell.

I fully pantsed the first draft, starting with a scene that is now in Chapter 3 when one twin, Miranda, walks up to a woman sweeping her porch and can immediately tell from her shocked reaction that the woman knows her twin who is now lost. The questions that sprang from that scene (Where is the lost twin? Why is this woman shocked to see Miranda? Who is this woman? etc) and the questions that spiraled from the following scenes got me about 20,000 words along, until I realized I didn’t know what else to write but I had a half baked second act and no third act at all.

After a bit of panic I did what we all do when we need to know how to do something (or want to watch a cat video). Of course, I googled “How to write a novel” and yes, there were plenty of answers. Among other things I found the Snowflake Method and I mostly gave a shot. I didn’t do all the steps since I was already well underway but I did plot out every scene in Excel and move them around where needed and tried to have each scene (or chapter) start with one sense, or feeling, and end another way. Sketching out each scene and its purpose made me tighten up the story but also see which parts needed more. Looking at it this way also helped me form the third act. I didn’t stick with the method religiously, but next time I will start with Snowflake first so that hopefully the first draft doesn’t take a year (yeah that happened).

Now I’m on to the publishing journey, starting to query agents and hoping for the best. More on that process to come in future posts.