Yesterday, I wrote about how I was trying to shove too much into my first plot point scene. It had gotten derailed by an argument between two of the characters before getting to the point. While I wanted to show their conflict, it was not the primary purpose of the scene. At the same time, my hero had completely lost agency as the scene was written and was merely observing.
As it was, the scene was a hopeless mess, so I scrapped that version and started over today, making better progress than yesterday. This time, I got right into the point, the bombshell of information that is going to drive my hero’s decision. The scene is better focused from her perspective, though I’ve hit her with a series of gut punches now and she is reeling. I’m not quite sure how to bring her back and have her make a decision. Maybe it would make sense to cut to a new “scene” from another character’s point of view briefly, then cut back to her later in the conversation. But no, that sounds like it’s too long of a conversation.
I need to cut to the chase, as it were. Tomorrow, I will try to have the guide character get everyone to focus on the immediate problem and put their other issues aside. That will give my hero space to make her decision and also leave some tension to be resolved later in another, more active scene.