My novel has another new title: The Tree of Rise and Ruin

Nice, eh? I love it. I met with my writing/critique partner, Beckie Ugolini, over the weekend. I had submitted The Tree of Ruination and Rise to her and she suggested Ruination and Rise were not parallel. Drop the "ation." Better.

In that same meeting, I had voiced concerns about how the whole of the novel should be handled. There are three parts that take place in three different times from the PsOV of three different men. I expressed my worry that I didn't have enough reading experience to choose between one of three directions I saw the story being told.

Beckie laid down some basic rules and shared her own experience blocking out one of her stories. She swears the system works.

The jury is still out as to whether it will work. I've been so busy and tired lately I haven't been able to complete even this seemingly easy blocking step, but it shows a lot of promise. Already, I can see one huge benefit, though. I have been forced to make final decisions on the flow of two of the three parts. Eventually, I'll have to nail down all aspects of the story. Until I started this, I hadn't realized how up in the air much of the story actually was. Knowing the story basically is far from knowing the story well enough to write it down without punching holes that may not be sealable later (without a great deal of work, that is).

Not long ago, I was certain my outline -- a traditional college-style outline -- was up to the task. Though I can see that step was necessary for fleshing out the broad strokes, breaking down the story's action in chapters defines the action to an altogether higher level. This must happen now, before this and after that. This character will be here while this other character, in a different part of the story, is suspended over there.

I can't wait to get to it again soon. I believe that once this blocking out business is all done, I'll be many times more confident in the actual writing. I've already made a number of changes to how I thought the stories would interact and I've taken a number of opportunities to elaborate on items I had only touched on briefly before.