Happy Spring from my writing desk! The picture is of a miniature replica helmet my dad brought back for me from the island of Crete. He picked it out for me because of the owls on it (owls are my favorite). I absolutely love it and think it’s quite the epic addition to my desk display.

Speaking of epic additions, I’m pleased to (informally) announce that I’ve been developing a new series over the past month or so. I won’t be sharing many details about the project this month, but stay tuned over the coming weeks. It’s been a rigorous brainstorming process, taking over half of a single notebook full of scattered notes. I’m hoping to move on to the concrete plotting and developing stages now, though admittedly I’m hitting a lot of uncertainty of how to sort through my jumbled mess of characters and subplots. It’s been a while since I plotted a large-scale series like this one, so I’m needing to relearn my process. I’ve made a checklist and set a goal for this week: writing book blurbs and a synopsis for each book in the series. While normally this is my last step before I begin writing the book, I believe that setting down this broad guideline will actually help me outline and develop themes. Due to the worldbuilding and what I want to do with point-of-views over the scope of the series, this book needs a fairly detailed outline. Plus, I fully anticipate writing this gradually and probably not every day, especially once I start grad school. So, before I head off to the busy season of life again, I want to nail the pre-writing stage—even if that means taking a slower pace and not finishing my development until the end of summer.

As for Our Company of Fools, my most beloved book, I’m pleased to say I met my editing goal a month ago. Since then, I’ve slowly begun the process of preparing to query the novel to publishers and agents. I’m unsure if it’s ready for the world, but I feel like I lose nothing by trying to get it published now. Besides, I’ll never know unless I try. It’s a scary yet exciting step to be taking, one I’ve dreamed about for years, so it’s kind of surreal to be taking that step now. We’ll see where the Lord takes it!

That’s all for this post. I hope to start posting these detailed updates monthly from here on out! Until then, does anyone have tips for plotting large-scale series? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts and what’s worked for you!