Word count is at about 24K. The scenes are getting longer, the pace more relaxed because all that critical scene-setting and character-establishing and plot-starting stuff is out of the way. They are also writing more quickly, due to basically the same thing. So it feels like I'm going to hit my target word count.
I've done the Inciting Incident, a Refusal of the Call, the cross Into the Underworld, a first Crisis...but I'm not actually following any template. I've given up on warping things into too close a reading of the three-act structure, even though it sort of is one. And following Campbell too closely is a mistake. On a smaller scale I love the idea of Try-Fail cycles and Scene-Sequel construction but I'm not quite getting those either. Best I can say structurally is there are arcs, with plenty of rising action, climax or turn, falling resolution, integrated into an overall arc.
This is the point at which iterative outlining is finally working. There were several places in the earlier chapters where I had to backtrack more than I wanted; to go back and tinker with the outline itself. Now I have a basic structure and I've done enough of the general research that I don't have to go back to ask, "What is this novel really about?" all the time.
I'm finding it much easier to monkey with scenes now. So much so I'm doing fine with doing a rough draft of a scene, leaving it in place as I see what the scene after it will require, then coming back to change it around. Perhaps it helps that this particular first-person voice is not terribly eloquent. Penny thinks fast and jumps around and I'm finding it very easy to drop new lines in or re-purpose old ones.
The heavy work is done. The major research issue I'm having now is the fact that I'm trying to push ahead whilst I have a couple of scenes I've skipped over. So I have a bunch of windows and links and notes and images saved for the material in those scenes.
Oh, and somehow I totally lost a cute discussion on a German-Language forum that gave specific examples of the things you are likely to hear if you cross the street against the lights. I may have to ask my German-speaking friend. Would rather not, as she makes a living doing translations (from turn of the century German to modern German but still).
Oh, and whoops...I was misreading Google Maps. Although Maps thinks it is a 35 minute walk from the train station to the airport, the Frankfurt Bahnhof is a mere pedestrian bridge from the terminals (it is a little more complicated -- it's a big airport -- but there is an automated train between the terminals and basically you never have to go outside, much less have to walk around the streets of Frankfurt. So I need some other way to waylay my protagonist.
And, yes, I would totally love it if whatever they did gave her a chance to do something badass. Because she's been largely reactive so far. Her most heroic moment was talking to a guy she didn't like. Which was actually an act of physical bravery...but being brave and good are not quite the same things as being cool and awesome, and I also want some of the latter.
No comments:
Post a Comment