Which means I start the new novel. Good thing I finished all my revisions by yesterday. (Yes that means I’m submitting. Hush.)
The new novel is already in development, and has been, for a while, but for my record I’ll say I started it in July, because I haven’t been able to focus on it until now. I have the world mostly built and know a few of the characters, but I have a lot to decide. It is traditional fantasy, and I have not decided if it should be as a young adult or not. I think so. But it is much bigger than my other ideas and stories, and involves delicate relationships and hard ideas and things that could be inconvenient if I were unwilling to be brave. It is rather an adult story told through a young adult’s eyes. That is on purpose in accordance with my theme.
Last night as I lay in bed waiting Toady, the One Sentence clarified. While I know much of the shape of the plot, this helps me focus it and gives me a way in. I love this stage, the pre-writing planning and uncovering, when I surprise myself. I also love the drafting. It’s the revisions I don’t like, and I am glad to be done of them for now.
On another note, I am reading The Lord of the Rings. It is slow but nice. I had tried to read it shortly after the movies but was too impatient. I thought I had quit at Tom Bombadil but I think I must have made it to Rivendell last time. I am just through the first half of the Council of Elrond now, and Gandalf has just asked what to do with the ring.