Forgot the mortar and pestle

I braved the grocery store and re-stocked on coffee. But in the rush of things, what had felt through two pairs of gloves like ground coffee turned out to be whole beans.

So. Beans into a tough plastic freezer bag. Then an improvised rolling pin from a three inch diameter cylinder of solid aluminium left over from a lathe project. Took way too long but at least I have coffee.

I need it. I'm studying the materials I have on the excavation of Bradgate House, and the books I have on standard archaeological practice, trying to build a scene in which my protagonist is given a brief tour of an excavation in progress.

As usual is a tough balance. Being selective about what is really important (aka, that this is Real Archaeology and it is what my protagonist desperately hopes to get into) so I don't end up losing the reader in detail. It is one of those weird conundrums I've spoken of before; too much and the reader gets lost, too little and the reader thinks you are abandoning them.

There really needs to be a good way of saying, "background detail, pay no attention."

And at every step, shaping the conversation to be appropriate to the characters and, when possible, to illuminate them. Made even more interesting because this is still the first chapter and I'm basically building them as I go.

I mean, sure, I have the basic idea on all these people. But then you hit text and stuff happens. I had a Davvy, and I had a Welshman who insisted he be called "Jonesy" because, "you will anyway." But it wasn't until I started writing text that "Davvy Jonesy" started appearing across adjacent lines.

(I toyed with "Geordie" but that was too on-the-nose. So at the moment he is "Brendan.")

So I write a paragraph from Jean on the history of Bradgate House, and I don't want to go Victorian Novel with the paragraphs so someone else has to make a comment to break up the wall of text. And it isn't in character for Jonesy, so who gets to say something? Is it Stu? But is that starting to make Stu look like the one who is always interrupting? Because this is still early and what these people do now is going to engrave their personalities for the reader.

And there needs to be B-plot stuff happening. Character interaction. Underlying tension. Small victories and small failure. I already did the first big one, and that took six drafts of shifting events around until I could have the moment where George warns her it will piss off Brendan but Penny says something to Leslie anyhow.

And, yes, it is a triple-purpose moment; setting up relationships between several characters, putting the seeds in a third-act insight, having some tension for the first chapter, and foreshadowing the Big Choice at the heart of this particular story.

But back to Bradgate. There's a later scene that closes out the chapter set in a Home Guard training area. For that, I know nearly nothing and I'm happy enough with that. Research is both a blessing and a curse. Something it might be better to know less.