Table of Content

1. Introduction
2. Book Updates
3. Recommended Reads
4. Quick Writing Tip: The Scene outline
5. What to Expect:
6. Conclusion:

Introduction

Welcome to November my Nugs! I hope October was a wonderfully spooky time for you. Now it’s time to get ready for the rest of the holiday season. I hope everyone has fun plans and gets to spend time with the people they love.

I’m still working on my Scroll of Stone Epic Fantasy Novel, but more on that in a bit. My wife and I have been working on some house projects and finally cut down the weeds that overtook our barren backyard over the summer. Like writing, all it took was finding the right tool to really make progress. And in that mind, I thought I’d share a new tool I’ve been using to help my writing. Find more in this newsletter’s quick writing tip below.

Book Updates

October was a month of small progress, but I got some words down and reached chapter 13 for each of the characters. To give you some background, for the first draft, I broke the book into 4 parts with five chapters for each character. These may change and such by the time it reaches publishing readiness, but it helps keep everything organized and paced for me at the get go. At the writing of this post, I’m halfway through the chapter 13 set. Hopefully, it will be into 14 or 15 by the time this is up. If I get through the chapter 15 set by the time this posts, I’ll updated with a word count. (A quick note, I have reached the chapter 15 set, but it is not yet complete.)

I have been learning so much more about this world from words they use to how the magic works. I also discovered some loopholes for the magic that characters with the most experience have figured out how to use. For every rule, someone will try to find a way around it, and some succeed.

If you haven’t already, check out my other works of fiction on my Storyline’s page! The stories will remain free and up on myersfiction.com until the end of this year.

Recommended Reads

I just finished the Wheel of Time Book 12: The Gathering Storm. Book 12 is where Brandon Sanderson took over and it’s been an amazing boost to the series. I don’t know about many of you, but books 10 and 11 dragged along for me. It’s important to read the previous books for the full effect, but book 12 is worth getting back into. Rediscover the characters you love and love to hate as Rand al’Thor prepares for the last battle.

Quick Writing Tip: The Scene outline

As my writing style has been developing over the years, and especially in this last year, I’ve found more solace in plotting. The “gardening” or pantsing ways still exist as I sit to write each scene/chapter, but I’ve found the preparation is key to a good writing session. So, I did some research and found a scene outline that worked for me.

1. Exposition: Introducing the reader to the new scene with some key details.
2. Inciting Incident: The first sign of the challenge your characters will face in the scene.
3. Rising Action: Ramping up or driving down the character, their goals, and their abilities.
4. Dilemma: This is often where a choice must be made, whether it’s a pathway to go down, a reaction to the rising action, or inaction.
5. Climax: The actions the character must take in the scene to resolve the scene dilemma, or where it seems to resolve but adds on to a future scene’s dilemma.
6. Denouement: This is the fallout of the scene, or the aftereffects of choices made and actions taken.

The Scene Outline is a tool that you can adjust to fit how you need. You may notice that it looks a lot like the overall story structure, but on a smaller scale. This is something I always believed made a good story, keeping the structure flowing at every level, but it took me plenty of time to reach this point. I’m sure I’ll adjust this template in the future. I hope you find this helpful in your current writing process. And just a quick reminder, not all scenes are chapters, and not all chapters are a single scene.

What to Expect:

In November you’ll find a post on the use of Symbols in Fiction and an Introduction to Point of View. Both of these will be great materials to review as you work through your NaNoWriMo challenge. If you haven’t already, go back one post and check out the advice for conquering NaNoWriMo in this post here. Check back later in the month, just before Black Friday, for a top ten list of gifts to get for the writer you love this year!

Conclusion:

As we wrap up November and head into the holiday season, thank you all for your continued support and interest in my writing journey. Even though progress can feel slow, each word brings me one step closer to sharing this story with you. I’m grateful for the chance to learn and grow as an author, and I look forward to all that’s coming. Also, as you can see I’ve started to add Table of Content sections to my posts. Let me know if you like this or not! Happy November, my nugs!

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