On October 20, 2022 I began working on the outline for The Woman in The Mirror.
It took me over two weeks to complete the outline which is no biggie. I've had some outlines take me over two months. But what I found odd was how long it took me to come up with the first line of the book.
For a week I fiddled with the opening line. No matter how many times I looked at the damn outline I couldn't get the writing ✍️ engine to turn over. Then I figured out what the problem was. The problem was I hadn't decided at what point was I going to bring the main character into existence.
Did I want his entry to be during his prepubescent stage, during his college days, or at the critical point when this 40-year-old, plastic surgeon discovers there is a woman living inside him.
None of the above 👆🏼
I decided to start during his exiting the womb.
Once I got the scene working in the hospital the story began to flow.
There is one other minor little issue I've discovered just from the ten chapter outline I've done. And this has happened with other books, notably Frankenstina. That book was supposed to be 20 chapters. For some odd reason it grew 7 more. I have a feeling the same thing is going to happen here but we'll see.
It's the predictable uncertainty that I love about this art.
Jerrimiah Stonecastle
"Throwing Stones at A Glass House"