As of this afternoon, I have completed the detailed, writing outline for The Soul Stone, book three in my fantasy series, The Word and the Sword. This is the “thick” outline I work from when writing the novel, and is typically very detailed. This one still needs some expanding, but I am satisfied with the overall flow, structure and progression of the story.
This story is by far the most complex I have yet outlined, and the sub-plots are numerous. This is both a necessity of continuing the layers of story already introduced in the first two books, and also of building a satisfying mystery filled with red herrings and development. In all, the result is very exciting, and I am, as always, grateful to God for providing the story to me and guiding my process.
I have decided to continue on with the outlining process rather than begin work writing The Soul Stone and hopefully press through all nine remaining volumes with detailed writing outlines, while working slowly through writing the books themselves. Thus, I will in the next few weeks be gathering my notes together and vision-casting for book four, The Black Tree, which represents an entirely new sort of story from the first three. In structure it is most similar to The Mirror of Life, though in details it is not. One of the major allusions in the book will be (at least for now, in the planning stage) Beowulf, and will be filled with werewulfs, the rising threat of the Skull King, battles, harrowing quests, and the ever-present Black Tree, an object of great evil and darkness worshiped by the barbarians as a god.