It's Begun!

I've just finished the planning stage of my novel... for now, and I've finally begun writing the first chapter! It's a wonderful feeling. Planning out all the scenes might have taken several weeks, but it's well worth it. Several twists and turns evolved during this process, but I know this will add value to my story and characters. I'm also glad that I used Microsoft Excel for this, a suggestion from some of the books I mentioned in my previous posts. It made it a snap to add, remove, and rearrange the scenes.

Although the planning will help when fleshing out the novel, my path is still going to be long and winding. Breathing life into characters that exist as nothing more than mere words on a page will be both art and science. However, I will ensure that I put maximum effort into this task. I need those characters to come to life in one's mind, along with the story world. Readers must experience the same pains, joys, fears, confusions, anger, and love on the pages, as if they were experiencing it for themselves in reality. We want to root for the protagonist, and see them through the next trial. The next page needs to be turned, until there are no more left.

I read anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour a day from the books on my Kindle. If you must know, I'm currently enjoying book six of Krista Belcamino's, Gia Santella Crime Thrillers series (I accidentally read book seven already, but that's ok... this one is filling in some blanks though). And I pretty much read when I lay down to rest for the night. But I manage to stay wide awake when reading stories that pique my attention. I want that same effect for anyone else who one day gets my novel and says, let's go for a ride. I want... need that ride to be memorable.