Some of what I’m about to say is a reiteration of what I commented a few weeks ago at The Plot Whisperer’s site. (sorry, Martha!)

In my post about the timeline, I stopped writing before I got to the part where I should have talked about adding events closer to the beginning of the story … mainly because I didn’t want to reveal any spoilers. But, it was bugging me. So I decided to go ahead and talk about it now. It’s a very important part of the process, after all.

The best way I’ve found to go about creating the recent events that lead up to the beginning of the story is to have at least one major character fairly well planned-out. For instance, if you know how old the character is, you’ve already got a timeline-worthy event.

ex:
We know my book begins in the ‘Year of Harmony’ 2784.
And we know Cirellio is 28 years old, so…

YH 2756:
Cirellio is born.

Voila! A starting point.
Now, to get him from an infant to the strapping young man I know in my head…

A great way to plan out these early life events is to understand that every character wants something, wants to avoid something, and has dreams. These drives are often tied together, and should ultimately steer them to their fate. This mantra works well at all stages of the book.

((This may sound wacky, but I’m going to say the next part is a spoiler. Yes, this is a SPOILER WARNING for a book that may never see print and isn’t even complete yet. :P But anyway, little tidbits about the main character’s background (without going into too much detail) will be mentioned here. Just understand a big part of who Cirellio is and what he will become has to do with his back story, which I plan to reveal to readers in small increments throughout the book. Proceed at your own risk!))

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