The map, please

I've reached that point in research I reached during the last book; the point where I find out it is easier to zoom out Google Maps and just spin the globe to the spot I want. The shape of the Thames past Westminster and the loop it makes around the Isle of Dogs is so familiar I can find most of my locations faster by scrolling than I can by typing.

I'm hitting between 1K and 2K a day. For every hour of writing, I'm still spending an hour looking stuff up. But less time, now, contemplating the plot arcs and trying to figure out how to tell the story better.

The poverty arc really isn't working. The Steve arc is in trouble. I'll tinker with those in a bit, though. This morning's work is to cut-and-paste to take the site description from later scenes and move it to a brand-new earlier scene. On re-read the transition was just too abrupt.

And, really, the pacing would feel better if there was another thousand words in Part I. It is a bit crammed with background information and set-up and taking it slowly can't but help.

I haven't gotten around to yanking the previous mention of the Kennington Loop but yesterday I wrote a brand-new scene to Show, not Tell. Not that the Loop itself matters to the story. Nor does the proposed Tootencamden Line, which I got a chance to name-drop in this new scene. The scene also gave me a chance to put a rail fan in the book, so that was all to my advantage.

(Actually, I was going to explain how the Northern Line Extension is going to come off the Loop, but I don't want to set that up as an easy access to the system. I have something more epic planned for the big action scene.)

So the main challenge this morning is to put down enough words to make the scene seem comfortable and un-rushed, and just enough specific detail to give it a sense of verisimilitude without drowning the reader in gasometers and Tesco and cricket grounds and so on.

And then pick up the narrative again with my last big "poverty" scene, where I want to show the inside of a hostel. And that one is the same problem, except the detail I don't want to show too much of...I don't know myself.

Then back to the Imperial War Museum for more costume porn.