Excluding a few scenes that needed some heavy rewriting last summer, I haven’t been actively creating storylines in the Europa Academy world for about two or three years. This last month, I decided to dive into it again. And diving in would be a good metaphor, because a good portion of this story will take place in the oceans under the ice.
Reader Excitement
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve received enough positive reader feedback that I think it would be best for me to continue to focus on the Europa Academy series before going in another direction. At least, that’s what I’m thinking right now. There may come a time when I need a break or when I’m waiting for feedback from editors or beta-readers and I’ll decide to pursue one of these other back-burner projects. But for now, it’s full-steam ahead on Europa Academy #2.
I should definitely take this chance to thank everyone who has read and loved Frozen Secrets. Getting encouragement from readers is the best. And encouragement from my family, that’s awesome, too. In fact, I finished reading Frozen Secrets to my youngest two boys a few weeks ago, and they were a bundle of roller-coaster emotions the whole time. If you can picture me rubbing my hands together in authorly glee at each scene where Max and his friends are in peril, just know that may or may not have been re-enacted in real life with my boys.
Plotting a New Book
But back to my original idea for this post, I’m plotting out the story for Europa Academy #2, and I’m (re)discovering my writing process as I’m doing it. I’ve known since my first onset of writer’s block that I’m definitely someone who needs an outline of where the story is going to be able to write the scenes. Knowing that at the beginning of this book-writing process has helped me focus on what kind of outline I need. I have a Google Doc that is divided into five sections: Ref Info, Outline, Scene Descriptions, Brainstorming, and Deleted Stuff. Below is what I do with each.
Ref Info
This is where I put the character names that I come up with. I also write down important locations, dates, and technology information that I might need to look up again. For example, in the outline document for Book One, I included all of the information about orbital periods, rotations, mass, distance, etc, of Earth, Luna, Jupiter, and Europa. I didn’t put any of that stuff into the document for Book Two (I know where I can find it now), but I did include some useful information about the Chinese language (Mandarin, specifically). I’m not sure how many Mandarin phrases I’ll have Mei Li use, but it’s nice to have the references somewhere.
Outline
Here I write one-liners for each scene with abbreviated headers if it’s a specific part of my plot structure. I follow the Story Engineering method that Larry Brooks explains in his book. I have an Inciting Incident, a Plot Point One, a First Pinch Point, a Midpoint, a Second Pinch Point, a Plot Point Two, and a Resolution. The scenes that play those roles, get a little bolded abbreviation on their line.
Scene Description
This one’s probably pretty self-explanatory. I write a paragraph (probably 10-15 lines) for each scene. I will say, that I always write these in present tense and I’m continually forcing myself to go back to past tense when I write the actual scenes for the book. I mentioned this problem to my wife, and she said I should just change one or the other (in terms of tense). I’m not sure I could change either one. Scene descriptions feel like “present tense,” sort of like when a studio executive is pitching the idea for a scene (“She’s running and running, and she looks back, then she trips and falls into a pit . . .”). But I definitely can’t write my actual stories in present tense. I remember the first time I read a book in First Person Present, and it took a few chapters before it wasn’t a completely jarring experience for me. *shrug*
Brainstorming
This is the section I go to when I’ve had an epiphany for a scene and I need to record it before I lose it. I also go here if I’ve been slogging through trying to come up with a suitable idea for a scene and it’s slow-going. Either way, this is where the ideas go that I’m not sure will eventually become scenes in the story. Sometimes I copy and past from this section into the Scene Description section, but sometimes it’s just loosely based on what I write here.
I’ll also put a little note here (that I might expand on in a future post), that I discovered last week that I brainstorm better when I’m riding a bike than when I’m jogging. Funny.
Deleted Scenes
This is like the sections in the DVD Special Features, but in my case, I have this section so that I can give myself permission to delete something I’ve written that doesn’t fit the direction I’m going. I struggle with the fear that I’ll need it later, so I don’t let myself delete things very easily (also, I’m sort of a pack rat). Well, this section lets me “delete” stuff without actually losing it. Win-Win.
Anyway, that’s how my process works. Things may change in the future, but that’s where it’s at right now.
Back in the Europa Academy “World”
Again back to what I wanted to say at the beginning, it’s been so much fun to get back into the Europa Academy world. As I imagine these new scenes and events for the next story, I can feel what it would be like to be there again. It’s like I’m standing on the curved streets of Europa City or bouncing through the halls of the old Europa Base. It’s so fun, and I have to imagine this is part of the reason that authors come back to write again and again. I’m loving it.