Work In Progress

This book began as a personal project: a collection of questions mined from the far reaches of the internet and my brain to help work through some roadblocks in my own WIP. It was never meant to get far. This is your new literary laboratory. If it's neat and tidy by the end, you've done it all wrong. 

 

Terry Pratchett once said, "the first draft is you telling yourself the story," and that's what Part 1 is designed to do: get your story out of your head and onto the page. 

 

Part 2 has genre-oriented questions. Since many of these chapters might not apply to your story, feel free to skip them. Many genres have some degree of crossover, however, so I recommend popping into each for a look-see in case they might have some helpful elements. 

 

Part 3 is oriented around story progression, using a beginning-middle-end structure for simplicity. The questions here are to help you design out how your story will unfold. Visit each section as you reach these milestones to reorient yourself, resist getting lost in the creative doldrums, and reach your author goals. Or don't- I won't tell you how to live! 

 

As I said, you should not know the answers to every one of these questions, and not every one of these answers should find its way into your final product. The point is to get you thinking about the answers, sit them in the back of your head, and provide a broader sense of your world and characters as you write. If you don’t know the answer, do your research and find one. Only then can you present your reader with an immersive experience.

 

Now, don't you have a story to write?

 

- Moira