Writer's Journal

So.  Or should I say, “hwæt”?

(Remember, folks, everything I write here is my opinion, not gospel truth. If it doesn’t work for you, well, get your own website.)

When writing out a project like this, it’s important to follow the outline as closely as you can. Sometimes a new idea intrudes, and deforms your plot. Sometimes the characters just can’t go the original way, and you have to sort of improvise something.

Your outline is the map and compass that will get you through the story. While I was working on my senior thesis last year, my hard drive died. I didn’t have my outline, and I just had to feel my way along.

I passed, I did well, but the story suffered.

On the other hand, with Behemoth, I spent an entire chapter deviating from the plot, because that’s what the villain wanted to do. And sometimes you just have to go along with the villain; they’re the ones who move the plot, after all.

But the important part isn’t the deviation: how do you get up off the rails and then back on?

No, you don’t write a second outline.

You change the first one. Write in what you put in, and figure out how to get from point “4” back into the alphabetically labeled points. If it’s any good, and some intuition led you to change the plot, then it can stand having a new section jammed into the middle of it, or a post-note slapped onto it.

Just make sure it’s how the story goes, and you should be alright.

Notes about Cicatriz:

“Eshmun” is a Phonecian god, passed down to the Greeks as “Asclepius.” “Astarte” is also a phonecian deity (a goddess,) but is passed down as Ashtaroth (a masculine demon.) “Dumuzi” also known as “Tammuz” is held to be a demon by Milton and others, but was originally a mesopotamian deity similar to the Greek Adonis.

All of these figures have at least a slight impact on Cicatriz, mostly because they’re central figures in the Palestino Revivalist Religion, the neo-pagan movement that I first showed in 1×04.