The Excitement is Back!

My husband gave me some feedback on my outline that correlated to what I'd thought was missing: the fear and reality of the witch hunts. Sure, the protagonist runs and hides from witch hunters and gets caught by one and escapes, but the outline didn't include the other aspects of having witch hunts: the trials and executions. How to fix that hole?

I researched via the trusty internet and found useful tidbits in Wikipedia and different Scottish history sites to help me better understand witch hunts. The best source was The Great Scottish Witchhunt of 1661-1662. This PDF, while expensive for this non-income earning writer, was exactly what I needed. The paper dovetailed so perfectly with my story (or is it the other way around?) ...

• The majority of my story is set exactly in those years.
• The witch hunts were centered in Midlothian, Scotland, just south of where my characters spend most of their time.
• George MacKenzie, who helped free many of the "witches," is the same age as one of the major characters. Perfect for some fictional artistic license: he'll be an old school buddy of a main character and help the protagonist's cause.

The author of the paper listed several references, so should I need more info, I could search for those documents. However, I suspect they aren't as available to someone out in Arizona without a substantial fee. (Had I been in England, I could've popped into Cambridge and made a copy of the document. Would that I had a revenue stream large enough to do research on site.)

With this new information in hand, I've been amending and adding scenes that bring the trial and execution nose-to-nose with the protagonist. An added bonus: It made the story and process exciting again. It's been a while since I've felt this way with this story. Definitely full of Make-Me-Smile moments.

Now, to finish the outline so that I'm ready for NaNoWriMo in two days.

(Don't worry, I'm not going to rush through NaNoWriMo like always. I'll be thoughtful as I work this revision while trying to get as much done as possible. There is something about that looming deadline that motivates.)

NaNoWriMo, here I come.

Yep, I'm going to do it. So, I've been busy pre-planning my story.

Originally, I'd planned on individual posts on the tools that I'm using to prepare for my new story. But, with Life stuffing October with things to do and places to be, I've run out of time. So instead, I'll list a quick blurb about for my go-to tools.

• Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. As I've mentioned before, this structure spoke to this "retired" engineer like nothing else.
• 7 Point Story Structure as explained by Dan Wells. I just found his 5 video series on You Tube. These videos seemed like Cliff Notes version for the basics of Brooks Story Engineering. The link above takes you to the first video of the series.
• I recently bought The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, and I can already see how her visual plot tools and character building can help my stories. Her plot line structure is also broken into 4 sections, similar to Brooks's.
• Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course has been my mainstay for how to develop stories that I want, and hopefully others, want to read.
• NaNoWriMo.org has lots of tips, tricks and inspiration to browse through when stuck. If you want to Buddy me, AnneV is my handle.
• Lynn Viehl will be blogging on various topics related NaNoWriMo.
• I've created a Google+  circle for those on that network planning on participating in NaNoWriMo. Head over to my Google+ profile, I've just shared my circle.
• Twitter. Many writers hang out on this social network, using hashtags like #amwriting and #nanowrimo. For specific tweets from NaNoWriMo directly, follow @nanowordsprints and @nanowrimo.
• Pinterest. I created a board to house all photos that will help me hopefully create a realistic world of my story and characters.
• Scrivener - for all my writing and digital project organizing needs. The company is a sponsor of NaNoWriMo and has special offers for participants.

Time to get back to outlining.