Today is a very exciting day!
It has taken approximately three and a half years, but I’ve just finished version one of my novel plan.
I know… three years to just finish a book plan sounds far too long. But I have been incredibly picky with this story. I want it to be as perfect as I can make it.
With this milestone in my journey, it feels like the right time to share the book’s name and premise (unless it changes drastically) in a bit more detail.
Shepherd’s Warning
Clouds come in different forms. Cumulonimbus. Cumulus. Stratus. Nimbostatus, and more. But five years ago, a new cloud joined the club.
Deep red, and deadly.
For five years, fifteen-year-old Monty and his family have survived in isolation. But when their fragile life is unexpectedly shattered, Monty and his younger brother, Theo, must find alternative means of shelter and survival whilst avoiding the dangers that lurk in the new world they barely recognise.
I began planning this story when I was still living at home. I actually had the basic premise of repeatedly surviving a destructive storm in my head for a very long time. I remember it well. It was summer, and I was walking around my garden, picking dandelion leaves for my sister’s guinea pigs. On the horizon was an intimidating, deep grey cloud. The summer air had that weight to it that comes with knowing there’s about to be a downpour, but at that moment in time, everywhere was still dry. Something about ‘scavaging’ or these leaves whilst looking up at this daunting sky felt very dramatic to me, like I was trying to find food before I was forced inside.
This little, bizarre mindset would come about whenever a storm was imminent. Eventually, it made its way to paper, and the rest is history!
I’m glad my childish imagination is still in this head somewhere!
Now, I am 100% sure a lot of the scenes I have added to the plan will not likely make an appearance in the final version, and vice versa; some scenes will be there that don’t currently exist. But that’s the fun of it! For now, I at least have a guide. I know what direction I could go in if I hit a brick wall. But if my characters suddenly decide to head in a different direction when I come to write properly, I don’t plan to stop them.
I think the part I struggled with the most was the ending. Coming up with a satisfying way to tie this journey into a neat bow was tricky. I didn’t exactly know when in the story to merge the middle with the end, as every scene seemed to welcome something new and exciting, so I was hesitant to make that transition into a conclusion. There are a lot of ideas that I’ve had for this story that I’ve already forced myself to cut out, despite some of them being very intriguing if I do say so myself. But I didn’t want the story to get too long, or too repetitive. I want you to finish the book, wanting more, and not skipping through chapters because they don’t add anything to the overall story.
The ending I have in the works now is not set in stone. It might end up being completely different five or six times over by the time I’m done. But planning the story isn’t about being 100% happy with what I’ve come up with; it’s about knowing an ending is possible, and can work.
Another area I’ve struggled with planning was the technicalities. How do things work, like sewers, reservoirs, and power? Researching the likelihood of something happening, and locations being near other places, just little things like that. Only today, I was watching videos on collapsing dams on my work computer!
Sometimes, when I’d work out a technicality, it would affect another part of the story, sometimes for the better (like my previous blog post), and sometimes not so much, which was very annoying, and will no doubt happen again in the future!
Moreover, a big question I’ve asked myself constantly is ‘Would the world actually suffer as much as I’ve said it has?’ But what I need to remember is I am completely in control of this story, and I can make anything work if I want it to. I also need to keep reminding myself that it doesn’t need to be completely realistic. Not everything needs to be explained in real-world logic, and hey, even in the real world, the unrealistic can happen.
There are some very exciting, heartbreaking, emotional, and action-packed scenes that I can’t wait to write and share! I need to hold myself back from sharing them right here, right now!
So, all that’s left to do now is to write the thing! I’ve already written the first two chapters and a flashback. These will have to change slightly, of course, and will continue to do so (I keep saying this mainly for my own benefit, to convince myself that change is good!), but now I can move forward! I plan to keep you updated on the progress of my book, and, of course, other short stories will be on the way. There’s been a bit of a gap, but I have some unique ideas for new ones, so keep an eye out for those!
Jake Grayson Writes 