Alvar and Taya.

Today I'm going to rewrite the outline for my novel. I've been carefully thinking over a better way to tell my story and now I think I might just be able to pull it off!

See, I have the first twelve chapters written and they are fairly close to the way I want them. But all the things I have planned thereafter turned out to be all wrong. I had planned on jumping about four years and I realized what a mistake that would be. My hero, Alvar, is seventeen years old and he would be twenty-one. I think the years between seventeen and twenty-one are vital years in a person's life and (from a writer's point of view) offer a lot of possibility to show change and growth. I know I changed considerably in those years as I gradually began to understand what was important to me as an individual. So I really want to explore those vital growing years in my book (or books if there happens to be a sequal).

Oh, and I just want to mention that I have just as many female characters in my book as I do males. My main girl character is named Taya and she is twelve years old. By not skipping the four years, I will have the opportunity to show her blossom from a skinny awkward twelve-year-old to a tall gorgeous sixteen-year-old. I remember the painful process well and I hope to draw on my own experiences enough to portray the time realistically.

I will save more details for a later entry. :)