As I recently announced here on Authoring Arrowheads, I finished writing my most recent work in progress, Tales of an Awkward Turtle, on May 30th! Throughout June, I’ve been planning my next WIP, which is an idea that has been waiting patiently on the back burner since 2018. Let me introduce you to…

The Basics:

Title: Follow the Arrows

Series or Standalone?: Standalone

Genre: Contemporary Christian Young Adult Fiction

Sub-genres: Sports (Bowling and Archery) | Family | Friendship | Mental Health | Romance

Main Characters: Owen Perry and Hadley Hemby

Narration POV: Dual point-of-views told from Owen and Hadley’s perspectives in first person present tense

Setting: Grahamwood, North Carolina: a small, southern fictional town where the majority of my previous books are set. Though I’m not attaching a specific year to the story, I’m basing the timeline off of 2023’s calendar.

Age Rating/Content: I’m currently estimating this book to be suitable for readers ages 11 and up. Though this book will still cover tough topics with grace, as of the time of writing this post I anticipate this book to be much lighter than my previous works.

Story Origin:

My husband has been in love with bowling for over half his life, and two years after we started dating, I wrote this flash fiction story about a group of friends who bowl on a league together. Ever since then, I’ve daydreamed about turning the story into a full-length novel, because there just aren’t that many fiction books out there about bowling, especially for teens!

Then, when my husband gave me a recurve bow for Christmas a few years ago, the idea struck me to add archery to the mix, and thus the basic premise for Follow the Arrows formed!

My Main Goals for Writing Follow the Arrows Are To:

1) Help teens realize that, with God, they can emerge triumphantly from their current bad environment or circumstances, and that part of growing is inviting others in to help us. Owen strives to break out of the poor circumstances his absentee dad left him and his mom in, and carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, believing only he can fix their problems. In Follow the Arrows, teens will learn that we can’t fix every problem ourselves, and how freeing it can be to rely on God for help and guidance.

2) Help teens who carry trauma from experiencing a loved one, or themselves, go through medical issues. As someone who struggles with medical anxiety, I want to offer representation for this and show teens how expressing our worries to God can help bring peace to the medical situations either we, our family, or friends are facing.

Connection to My Previous Novels:

As of right now, I’m not sure how Follow the Arrows will be connected to any of my previous works, since these characters will be a few years younger than the characters I’ve written about in the past. However, I’m sure I can squeeze a cameo in somewhere. 🙂

Progress Thus Far:

This is the most bare-bones start I’ve had for a book in a while, and I’m slightly terrified, y’all. :O

I’m talking no previous chapters, no snippets to go off of other than the flash fiction story I mentioned earlier, and I’ll be changing things up from that quite a bit (I’ve already changed a few character names, one being Oliver -> Owen). All I’ve been going off of for outlining is a haphazardly formed note page that I made sometime within the last couple years.

Like with Tales of an Awkward Turtle, I’ve been outlining Follow the Arrows according to the Save the Cat! Writes a Novel method. I’ll admit, I’m having more trouble outlining this book than Tales. At the moment, I’ve outlined the story up the to middle of the “Fun and Games” portion of the method, so it’s not quite to the midpoint yet. Please pray for me as I continue to outline this book for the remainder of the month. I’ve considered taking July off from writing as well with plans to finish the outline, but we’ll see how that goes.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

If you’re a writer, tell me about your current WIP in the comments below!

If you’re a reader, do you know of any bowling or archery themed fiction books?

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀