I got done with the VP-8 scene. Got through in one go. Okay, there's some parking lot conversation I want to fit in. There's just a little more business between Penny and Lon to get through.
So I've got the dig team, the NAGPRA liason, the conspiracy theorist, and the retired nuclear physicist all on the page now. Always exciting the first time you try out a character. Lon took three drafts to try to zero in how he worked on the page. And he is still too nice a guy.
Next chapter, I add Jackson and Sanchez and that's it for major recurring characters. I think "Michael Rennie" may come back for a brief scene and there's a docent at the Nuke museum in Albuquerque who has a big chapter, but I've almost got the whole cast in place.
Oh, yeah. The VP-8 was the thing they turned loose on the Shroud of Turin as one of the many ways people have argued over the authenticity of the thing. I may end up needing a sensitivity reader for Catholicism for the scene I just wrote as, funny thing, the people at the museum are believers.
But I referenced another of Schliemann's exploits. Might end up cutting that. I've really reduced Penny's rambles about Sir Historical Figure Not Appearing in This Story for this novel. All part of my distillation.
Distillation one way, decompression in another. My latest worry is I might have too many action beats going on. I've become too conscious of the way people in a conversation notice bits of body language and read nuances and assumptions into them. Sure, I came through theatre and TTPRG where that is always part of the dialog as experienced.
But I feel I might be overdoing it. Today, when I got to the cashier at my usual place to order brunch I saw the previous guy had forgotten to sign for his purchase. He was still getting water so I tried to catch the eye of the cashier so she could remind him, instead of a stranger shouting "Hey, you!" down the hall.
She hadn't looked at her side of the display, she just saw me trying to catch her attention so gave me a short "I will be with you in a moment, sir!"
But at that moment water guy stood up and saw me looking at him. So I caught his eye and made a scribbling motion in the air. He moved closer but figured it out on the way. Signed, left with a quiet thanks. And cashier lady turned around none the wiser and took my order.
Now, that's some fun stuff. All is grist for the writer's mill and swap out one of those items for a live grenade and you might have a story moment. But I am worried now that I am pinging on too much of this stuff now -- maybe I really am spectrum and it has taken me this much lifetime to finally start noticing all this stuff -- and I'm cramming more of it into the flow of my writing than I really should.
My dialogue is decompressed to all hell anyhow. Penny was never an efficient speaker, in dialog or narration, but now I have entire sequences of people going "Oh? Well, yes. You sure? Yes" at each other.
And for all my intent that this was going to be 90% lyrical descriptions of empty desert, there sure are a lot of conversations.
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