When Graham and I first wrote Manticore’s Shadow, we knew that we each had elements of what we wanted to write. The process was loose, and we started with a rough idea of what where we thought we were going. It was merely a bullet pointed list of concepts and events, but was still light on details. 

We started with something similar to: 

• Act One
  • Jesse is comfortable in his life as a thief, but still needs more.  Thorn is constantly his companion.
  • Symon is living a well-to-do life with his father.

But as I looked into the flow of the story, I wanted more insight into our pacing and development. I was still planning at this juncture, letting Graham handle most of the writing, but story structure was something I instinctively knew needed guidance. So I wanted to convey the thoughts and ideas of each scene to Graham so he could build on them. 

So I began to draft “scenes.” I always envisioned the narrative as a movie or tv series. Each scene would be the camera focused on the characters involved. And anytime we would fade, this would be a scene split. Chapters would come later and would be a combination of a scene or scenes that had a like or complimentary narrative. 

Our mutual agreement was that our scenes should serve as many purposes as possible. Could we express a feeling of the character, while at the same time giving historical expositions? Could we show the setting, while giving the story a sense of urgency? To do this effectively, it was easier to lay out the elements of the scene and express them. So each scene would have the “Name,” the setting, the characters, the purpose(s), and the tone. 

In each scene we would have a small description of what we expected there, and BAM! we were off to the races!

So now, the points would look like this:  

Scene: Chase Intro

• Setting: Dark Alley
• Characters: Jesse (Main Character), Thorn (Primary Ally), City Watch (NPC’s)
• Purpose: Introduce Characters and establish setting
• Tones: Perilous, Action-Oriented
• Jesse is comfortable in his life as a thief, but still needs more. Thorn is his constant companion. They are working a job that goes sideways. The town guard gives chase and we see the beginnings of a complex intrigue plot of who Jesse is working for. Introduce main BBEG and set up Jesse’s growth arc.

Once the scenes became clearer, we could tell if we were bogging down the narrative with too many slow scenes. When a combat or chase would “ramp up” the pace of the book. And keep track of what plots and character arcs we were shooting for. With a little effort, we laid out the entire book (also realizing that our story was too big for one book) and began to fit our arcs into the 3-act (later 4-act) story development plan. 

Overall, it became a GREAT planning method and when I began writing more, Graham and I were on the same page (yes, that pun IS intended!) and were ready to craft the vision that was Manticore’s Shadow.

I’ve loved this process for our book.  We even expanded it to include better scene names (which may be our chapter headings.. but time will tell) and a timeline of the events so that our internal story clock was consistent. 

I think Graham appreciated it as well. But we’ll find out when he drops his views on the planning process this weekend!!!

Until then, be kind!

-Clevenger