October is all about NaNoPrep for me. In past years that’s mean having a kernel of an idea and then sitting down on November 1st and pounding on the keyboard until I hit the 50,000-word mark.

Not this year!

Star of Time came together so much better with a detailed roadmap. In hopes that the same will hold true for Star of Fire, I have spent the last couple of weeks nailing down some specifics.

I have used Take Off Your Pants to map out the major happenings and then flipped over to Super Structure to map out the guideposts. In fact, I actually nailed down the “Q Factor” and “Final Battle” moments this morning.

Having this map helps me to more fully “see” the story and know what’s coming and what needs to be foreshadowed.

It was funny, marrying these two techniques have really helped me, since when I hit a wall with one method I can flip to the other method and come at the block a little differently.

I’m right on goal to finish plotting Star of Fire by Friday. Since the cover for Star of Time is already done I can work on tying up loose ends and prepping for November 1 when the work really starts again!