On the weekend I started planning Book 3 of my children’s fantasy series - Cat’s Whiskers. This is the last book in the series and I’ve known how it has to end since before I started writing Book 1. I now also have a clear idea how it’s going to start too. But the middle…talk about thick fog.

I have no idea what’s going to happen in the middle.

I can’t move on to Snowflake until I have some idea what’s going on in the story. In order to come up with a half decent plot, I thought I’d brainstorm some ideas. However, a person needs a brain to do this and mine isn’t working all that good at the moment. Yesterday, I sat with a blank piece of paper and ended with a blank piece of paper. That’s not a good sign.

Fatigue is an issue with me, so I figure that I’ll have to do this brain storming session first thing in the morning - the only time I feel fairly reasonable. Come lunch time, I’ve had it and the brain, along with the body, is pushed to the extreme just to get through the day, so adding extra pressure isn’t going to work.

Yesterday morning, I sat quietly at my desk at work (it was a slow morning) and I cut up some board into sizable palm cards. The first two books in the series have 14 and 15 chapters respectively, so I figure this book will have about 15 chapters too. Hence, I made 17 cards - 15 for chapters, 1 for a list of character (a quick reference to ensure I get the spelling right) and 1 for a list of place names and strange object names.

On one card I wrote the details of the first chapter. On another card I wrote the details of the last chapter. This means I have 13 blank cards to fill. This, in turn, equals 13 hooks (because I like every chapter to end in a hook). Eek! It looks like I need one great brainstorming session to fill in all these cards.

Filed under: Cat's Whiskers, My Writing: