So, Back Story

So I'm working on this talking animal story. I wrote the first chapter, flung myself into the second chapter and realized that I couldn't proceed a step further into this world until I had a better understanding of it. I had a lot of vague basics floating around in my head, but I absolutely had to nail them down and define them if I was going to do this world, and its story, any justice.

So I just wrote a three page outline of the back story of this world and I think it has changed everything. While the beginning and the end are likely to be the same, I think the back story I came up with completely guts my planned second act -- which part of me is completely okay with and the other part of me is running around the house right now, screaming at the top of his lungs and searching for hair on his body to yank out (and there being so precious little of it, it's a Tolkien-sized quest unto itself).

So, you know. Grr and Yay!