Drawing from the Well
Queries Sent: 1
Total Queries: 3
Scenes Arranged: 8
Total Scenes: 208
I made some good progress yesterday. It was a busy busy day at work so it was a far cry from my 26 scenes the day before, BUT I also spent time determining the scenes that would fill the Fourth Eighth of the book so that took some time. Let’s see what I can do today since I have some direction.
Filling the Well
That Hideous Strength: 71%
Elegy: Page 20 of 89
I’m pushing hard on That Hideous Strength ever since I found the audiobook for The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman on Hoopla. THAT is a book I’ve been very excited to see get published so let’s do this!
Polishing the Well
What do these three pictures have in common? They are all vows I made to my wife. No really! At our wedding last year, I promised to buy her coffee, find her french fries, and rub her feet. Last night, I fulfilled all three of my vows which was pretty cool. Also, we watched Hairspray which is a great movie.
Well Chat
Giving Your Characters a Chance to Feel
One of the pitfalls of early drafts is too much action. I know that sounds insane. Too many things happening? How could that possibly be bad?
Because real life isn’t a series of things happening to you non-stop until you die. You have down time. You think about things. You AVOID action at times because you’re not ready to handle it. You react.
That’s why the scene cycle (Goal-Conflict-Disaster-Reaction-Dilemma-Decision) is so important. Half of the scene parts are doing things and the other half are reacting to them. Our reactions inform our decisions. No really. Have you ever made a choice, a real choice, without first feeling an emotion and then exploring your choices? It starts with feeling.
Thus, it is important to give your characters a chance to feel. In the First Pinch Point of Book Two, I do something really nasty to one of my characters. This leads to an even BIGGER nasty thing happening to this character later, but he has to decide to move in that direction. Based on what happens in the First Pinch, there are countless choices he could make. So how do I get him to decide to go down the path I’m prescribing? I inform the decision through his emotion.
Could you write a book that’s all action? Yes, but I would guess (and fear) that the story of it won’t actually be compelling. Even a high-action movie like Crank, the main character reacts to situations and makes choices. These reactions and choices happen quickly, but they still occur. Without those reactions, dilemmas, and decisions, the “story” is just a series of events happening TO your character. That takes the teeth out of their personality. They become a vehicle for things to happen instead of a thing happening in and of themselves.
It is the evolution from reacting to events to acting upon them that is so interesting to readers. Without that transition, it’s boring. That transition is a choice, informed by the available choices, and driven by the emotion of the reaction. So give your characters a moment to breathe so they can make some badass decisions.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG