Of a single powerful character arc that explores the theme, sets out objective and objection in a clear contest, and resolves in a solid climax. Whether it is the Campbellian mono-myth, a three-act (explain, develop, resolve), a boy-meets-girl or one of the Aristotelian lyric frameworks, that's what I want to write.
And I love a strong climax where all the preparation work comes together. For all the places it went wrong and all the side plots that in too many cases distracted from the main theme, at the core of the Captain Marvel movie is "Vers" slowly discovering who she had been. At the climax, the Supreme Intelligence once again forces her to re-live scraps of memory; all the times Carole Danvers had tried, failed, fallen. "Without us, you're only human." This is a theme that the Kree had been hammering over and over; weakness, emotion, dependence on them for any semblance of control over her powers, and they had shown these failures to her many times before.
But this time Carole has her full memories back. She rolls the tape forward. Each and every time, the child, the teen, the cadet had gotten back up.
So she gets back up. And shows the Supreme Intelligence just what "only human" can do.
I love moments like this. I love pushing a character down to their lowest point, then...
Well, I don't have it on this story. What I've got is more a romp, a travel tale through interesting scenery meeting interesting people. There's a dramatic arc but it is muted.
Out of all the ways I could have approached that first germ of an idea (a fake archaeologist to both take part in and to deconstruct fake archaeology) this was probably the weakest. My other ideas was either an actor who discovers the joy in real science, or a scientist who is pulled into a world of pretend science.
Or maybe this was the wrong story for this character. Throwing her into the deep end might have been better. Instead this is a slower origin story as she is given space to develop into the necessary skills. Instead of conflict, it is embrace. Instead of the climactic moment being, "This role is a lie!" it is, instead, "So you thought I was just a fake."
Finished the Germany sequence with a day left in the four-day weekend. Unfortunately have to do a wee bit of research before I can really launch into the Italy chapters. Well, still got a thousand words down before I had to take a break. Bringing the running total to 36K out of a revised target of 70K minimum. If I cross 70K I may start editing stuff out, see how much I can streamline.
If it continued at that pace I could have draft done in another month. Wouldn't that be cool? There's so many books I'd love to write, if I could just write a little faster, a little more efficiently...
Now at 1,500 and the train just stopped in Verona. And I'm being sad about the stuff I had to leave out. The white powder people sniff at Oktoberfest. The other surprising pop hits sung there. The wonderful old merry-go-round. How they say good morning without the rising tone, just barking out "Morgan!" as if angry. All the breads. The foods. The work ethic. Rhine castles and Rhine boats. Ah, well. I'll just have to write another book and send her to Berlin.
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