Step One: The Concept and Title

Setting the Tone for Your Story

This post is part of my Craft series delineating the 22 Steps of a novel’s lifecycle from concept to publication day, following my journey as I write my new novel, #HLN. Start here if you’d like to follow along in order, and subscribe to get the entire series as it releases.

On August 26, 2022, I had a dream.

I wrote a long note in my journal detailing the strange, vivid dream I’d had the night before, though I needn’t have—it was so real that I could summon every bit of it just by shutting my eyes. (I still can. Epic dream.)