After working out my series premise and the the premise line for book 1, I analyzed it following the methodology in John Truby’s Anatomy of Story. I looked for what the audience expectations would be, what the potential challenges of the story are, the designing principle, my hero’s basic action for the first book, and her character change (importantly, keeping her from changing too much internally, since this is part of a series – her change had to be relatively small with the primary change being an external change in circumstances).
I’m pretty happy with what I have here and – this time – I want to be sure to print it out and stick it to my wall so that I can review it every day before I write so that I don’t get carried away.
Going back to Suzy Quinn’s “How to Write a Bestseller” course, I think my next step is to finish my book package – including the frustrating imagery/cover step, but I will try to take that just as seriously and give it the time it needs.