Fallen tree trunks lay in various stages of decomposition, sporting star-like flowers and playing host to innumerable species of beetle and bug. The ground was boggy here and pocked with small, low-laying ponds glazed with brilliant green moss. So without further ado, here’s day one’s writing.Īll the work in the following paragraphs is copyrighted Cindy Brandner 2021 Opening sentences occasionally will show up in a spontaneous fashion but nowhere near as often as I’d like.

So I never begin at the beginning- usually I find the first sentence after the rest of the chapter is done, because I always have trouble with opening sentences, closing ones I find much easier as they tend to emerge in some fashion during the writing of the chapter. What I know at this point is that she’s gone out into the fields and woods with Zuza, who is basically the wisewoman of this particular camp and someone Yevgena is connected to in other ways that she’s not entirely aware of just yet.

This is early in the book when she’s trying to find a role for herself within the kumpania. So here’s day one on a chapter I’m working on for Yevgena’s book- The Long Road. Usually this is after a bit of research, which always gets my mind going down a few paths, and presents new ideas as well that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. So I just sit down and see what shows up. In this case it’s a bit of setting things up for what’s to come, even if I don’t entirely know what those things are yet. Mostly at this point it’s just about getting things started and figuring out a direction–who is in the chapter, what do I want to say, will this chapter link from the last one to the next, or is it more of a standalone in order to build character or get ready for events down the line? Sometimes I know going in which it is, and sometimes I don’t. Usually I begin with just a few ideas and make some random jottings of my thoughts, imagery, what the narrative is about and put in bits of description so that I can set the mood of the piece. I thought for this blog post I would show people how I build a chapter from start to finish.

Exit unicorns by cindy brandner