Lessons Learned

I think I might have finally learned the lesson that my college Computer Science professor was trying to teach. His mantra was

"Design, Design, Design!"

He proposed to us that an elegant design leads to an elegant solution, and a much easier time of implementing the solution. After "hacking out a solution" to the problem of what to write, I realized that I was trying to maintain story elements that had no bearing on the core plot. I also realized that the core plot didn't need to reveal all the details in the first few chapters, but cohesiveness could be gained throughout the book, by spreading details through the entirety of the text.

To make a long story short (not the book--just this post), I wrote an outline, and I've begun re-writing the book. I backtracked to what happened before the present text begins, and I'll integrate the existing text as necessary to complete my book.

I feel like this is going to be a much longer journey than I expected when I started.