Finished the pre-writing on the new book.
That’s 4 outlines (the first is 3.5 pages, the second centers on the history of the MacGuffin, the third is a quick path for the characters to follow in the final act, and the fourth deep dive which is 23 pages) and more than a dozen character profiles.
I really like what I’ve come up with. There were some late additions to the MacGuffin that I came up with and was able to figure out well before I started talking about it in literary form, giving me plenty of time to feed in clues and details about it early instead of needing to find places for it later.
Now, I generally hate how I begin books, so my first challenge is to write a first chapter that I don’t loathe.