Saoirse's Journey into Dowan Crutha

This is the beginning of my Dangerously Different YA Fantasy journey: the entrance into Dowan Crutha - a land of person/animal shapeshifters. Saoirse is human, and this is where she must go to fulfill the needs of my story.

After much thinking and dreaming and getting to know my main characters and world building, I wrote a possible structure and took it to the wonderful critical helpers in the on-line writing colony Litopia. The concept was well received and a good deal of the structure but not all of it. So, I spent time writing short pieces where my characters describe their world and its history (some of which will slot into the pages of the novel; the rest is the proverbial iceberg under the water that I need to know but won't move the story forward for the reader.) The most interesting new information came from when I interviewed the crutha High Lord who wanted a more prominent role in the story. What he told me has sparked ideas for tweaks in the structure. Now I can return to my plan. My other big eye-opener came from an exercise on the Golden Egg Academy Write Your Successful Novel Course which finally opened the tight-lipped mouth of my Antagonist, and now I know why he is the hero of his own story but the antagonist in Saoirse's.

November 2022: Hoorah! I have completed my first draft. There was a plot-point towards the climax where the crutha High Lord argued with me that my plot progression didn't fit with his world's rules. He gave me an alternative which, I have to admit, is better.

Now, I'm going to set it aside and start my developmental editing in January 2023 when I'll be able to look at it with fresh eyes. That's when I also send chapters to my alpha reader to see if it works before I edit again.

2023: My alpha reader loved reading but found plot holes to fix, so it's back to the drawing board for a bit.

2025: Flash forward a few edits between doing the day job and other writing stuff, including the brilliant Golden Egg Academy Write Your Successful Novel Course. I worked hard on this story structure, submitted to one agent (silence) then applied to the Golden Egg 12 month course and - Yay! - I got accepted. So 2025 was a year of learning and editing bits with the help of my assigned editor (Gold dust!) then finally applying for their mentoring program.

2026: I received an "Almost" plus R&R (revise and re-submit). This I have done and am waiting to hear . . . and in the meantime am continuing my learning with the Golden Egg Accelerator course (a follow on from the 12 month course).

This is March 2026. Yes, polishing a debut novel, as I hope this will become, is a long, learning process, but a very enjoyable one too. so, my friends, watch this space! . . .