Somebody said that writing the second novel is harder than the first.

Oh, wait, it was Daniel J. Hogan.  And he said it here.

I definitely get where he’s coming from.  I have been far more attentive to The Glass Crown’s shortcomings, as I write them, than I was to those in The Remembrance.  I know that once I finish, there will be rewriting and editing galore to make the story flow coherently, and to fill in gaps and inconsistencies.

The Remembrance seemed to flow out of me, once I really got going.  I feel like I’m prying out the Glass Crown with a crowbar, word by word.  For The Remembrance, getting the stuff in my head onto paper was my primary focus.  For The Glass Crown, I want to get the stuff out of my head, and put it onto paper WELL.  That’s a whole different class of intimidating.

It only took me three days to devote enough concentration to complete a novel outline.  The Glass Crown has a main story arc, smaller arcs, and each chapter – from the prologue to the epilogue – has a summary.

Instead of being exhausting, the process was energizing. I feel like a rabbit with a drum.  The story was there, just waiting for me to write it down.  I can’t wait to put flesh on these new bones.

It’s time to re-outline The Glass Crown.  The original outline only went up to Chapter 10, and has become increasingly inaccurate.  I need to reconsider, revisit, and rethink the primary story arc, as well as the smaller arcs and which character has been participating in each.  I need to know what the main characters are going to do after the conclusion, and I need to remember what they were doing before the beginning.

So, yeah.  Outline time.