Leta’s Creative Writing: A Wizard’s Guide to Gardening Update 1

My novel has been a topic of conversation for some time between myself and my close friends and family. I’ve talked about it a lot on here, too. Today I’ll be talking about the progress that I’ve made and whether I feel like I’m still on track for the goals my friend has graciously set for me (since I have an issue with my own deadlines when it comes to writing this novel).

The major change is the title, which I assume you’ve seen if you clicked on this post. I changed it from A Feminist Wizard’s Guide to Gardening to A Wizard’s Guide to Gardening. I was hesitant about the change, but I’m falling in love with it more. Having the “feminist” in there was way too on the nose since that’s the kind of message that the reader should pick up subconsciously or semi-consciously.

I planned out this novel with two major parts to the planning process. Step one is note-taking from Save the Cat! Writes a Novel about the fifteen beats that make up the structure of a novel. The second part is the longer section where I plot the entire novel scene-by-scene using the notes from step one. I finished the first step a while ago and started on planning the scenes beat by beat. I made it through the first 6 beats very quickly because they were all small beats, so I’ve only got nine more before the planning is done. It feels amazing to be this far, but I’ve still got more to do before the deadline. I must be done step two by November 1st so that I can begin writing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

The hardest decision I made in the last month was to drop the second perspective in the novel. This is going to be Mirna’s story and the next story I write will be Xaoryn’s, whether it be in the form of a novel or a novella. So, A Wizard’s Guide to Gardening will only have one perspective. I’m sad about it, but it’s the only way the story I have to tell will work.

I’ve created a secret Pinterest board to give my novel a visual aesthetic to the world I have in my head. One day I’ll make it public, and you’ll all see Zafta’s magical nursery soon enough. And because of all the above points, I’m starting to see what the overall arch is going to be.

Everything is on time so far, but I’ll check in again in about a month and see if everything is still on track. Thanks for reading!