Hive now 1/3 Written

You read that headline correctly. One third of Hive is now fully-written, or at least the rough draft is written.

I started working on Hive before Veznek was already released, so it’s not like this has all come together in the last few weeks. Still though, the writing process is coming along quicker than it has with other books.

One reason this book is coming together so quickly is because the story plays out much more straight-forwardly compared to all the others. In Iris, much of the book was world-building. Kholvaria also had to do a lot of world-building, plus started to deal with some splintering plot-lines a bit. And Veznek was complicated through the fact that every character was in a totally different place. With Hive, our splintered plot-lines begin to realign and now that we’re onto book 4, most of the world-building has already been done.

In my outline, I divided Hive into three equally lengthed Acts. Much like the popular “three act structure“, Act 1 provides the setup, Act 2 provides the conflict and Act 3 provides the resolution. But unlike the classic structure, my Acts are equally lengthed. I’ve broken from the common rule that Act 1 should be your shortest section, that Act 2 should be about 40% of the story and then that Act 3 should be the last 20-30%. I’m messing with those ratios here, but I’m doing it in a way that makes it very neat and easy to write. Everything follows a neat and easy-to-follow outline.

It also helps that I genuinely enjoy telling this story. I’ve already written about how much I enjoy writing the space battles in Hive. And man, it’s fun! Another part of what makes writing Hive so fun is connecting all these plot threads. I love it when two tangential plotlines finally collide. It’s like the moment all the Avengers assemble in New York for the first time.

So with a straightforward plot, an easy-to-follow outline, awesome space battles and a bunch of characters getting together, I expect that the full book will come together rather quickly.

Obviously I will let you know more as I know it. Until then, keep on checking back here for more info!

Take care!

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