Interesting...

I've started to create the outline and have a glorious three scenes. The beginning, the end and a moment in the middle. I just realized that my story is cyclical at least so far. It begins with a leaving and ends with a returning. Not the same character, but the same relationship at least.

In the beginning, Diggory goes off to war, leaving his love behind with the promise that they'll marry on his return.

In the end (after a whole lot of disaster), they find each other again and she returns to her home village with him. The implication is that they'll start their relationship again from the beginning. Too much has happened and time has passed for them to just start where they left off.

These things happen to me though rarely deliberately. I absorb mechanics in my reading both of fiction and non-fiction, but the decision/method of applying them is completely organic. Trust me, if I force it, it reads as "trying too hard :p."

And just to seem busy

Another question has come up on this novel. Nationality/appearance. This is a fantasy novel set in a fertile crescent type climate. The characters have not shown their skin color to me yet, but will probably be Middle Eastern or Black African in type. There have been discussions about character race on the OWW listserv that made me have to THINK about this. Normally, I would just let the characters look however they wanted to, but now I am asking myself does it have meaning or does it have to. *Sigh* Well, the meaning is obvious in terms of climate, but part of me wants to make them very dark just because I've never had a main character with true blue black skin and frankly, I think it is a beautiful tint. (And to diss people who say non-white characters have to have Meaning with a capitol M.) I grew up in the Middle East but am Irish and Slovak primarily. When I was a kid, I tanned dark but my light brown hair went white blond so no passing for me. Still, I find the contrast between really dark skin and my own intimidating (based on when I was temping in Washington, D.C. and my coworkers were all African American) but that's just because I seemed so pale, almost non-existent in comparison. They made a mark on the world while I faded into the white-washed office walls. Okay, maybe I had other issues going on, but hey ;). None of this gets me any closer to figuring out my characters however. I guess they'll tell me as usual and I'll accept it.

Outlining in process

I have completed 25 scenes now, including the beginning, end and the rest in the beginning of the book toward the middle. This book has three main phases: 1) Before slavery, 2) Good master and 3) bad master.

To give an example of how I write scene notes and show just how miserable this book will be:

On the seventh day, she rises early and washes herself in the trough given the slaves for cleaning. She chooses her best smock and skirt and combs her hair before braiding it so it hangs down her back. When the minder appears, she asks for directions to the temple to pray. The minder laughs and tells her she's a slave. Slaves don't go to temple. Wardah is stunned, suddenly feeling the truth of what she's done and who she is now. Something inside her curls up and cries, wondering what Diggory will think of her now. The minder only barks out his orders and pushes her out of the slave chamber, not allowing her to bind her hair or change out of her nicer clothes.

And the sad part? This is the good master :p.