As mentioned in a previous post, during June I will be outlining / drafting one new concept for a novel, based on the book First Draft in 30 Days, and then in July (or a little later if I don’t follow 30 consecutive days with the first test) I will be doing the same for a second novel using the method prescribed in Book in a Month (read my review of both books).

Today was the first of my 30 days dedicated to the first book. While I’m not willing to share plot and character details, I will say that it’s going to be a dark piece, falling somewhere between horror and psychological thriller.

I’m really excited to be starting on this one. I had two book concepts already in mind. I decided that the two would be better combined into a single book (I’d chosen two ideas that could realistically belong to the same series for the sake of testing the drafting programs with similar works). They’ll both be dark, but I think that’s pretty much the only similarity.

The idea for the one I’m starting on now actually came to me very suddenly on Friday night. A general idea popped into my head. I grabbed a large index card and a pen, and started jotting it down (so I wouldn’t forget). More came to mind. A story started playing in my mind almost like a movie – a new twist on an old genre, and characters I think I can have fun with.

Anyway, today I fleshed out the three primary characters for the novel. As much as I know I need to get this preliminary stuff out of the way, I’m actually itching to layout more of the plot (although I’m jotting down any bits of dialouge or scene info that comes to mind as the thoughts develop – that just seems the natural thing to do no matter what I’m supposed to be focusing on any given day).

I have the opening scene set almost word for word in my notes already, and even the ending as it’s currently planned. If I enjoy working on it enough (and I stay passionate enough about the project), I may actually take it beyond this initial outline / rough draft and try my hand at pitching a novel. At this point, only time will tell I suppose. I don’t pretend that fiction is my strongest suit, and I don’t know if I’ll be any good at it. One way to find out though, right?

Other than that, I also re-created the worksheets I would need over the next few days in my word processor, so I could create printouts (photocopying just didn’t take very good advantage of the page size). This works, b/c it also allows me to add or subtract elements to make them better work for me.

So here we go. On to day two!