I finally feel like the meeting scene is going in the right direction. This is my third attempt at it, after first making a mess that took hours to untangle, then tossing all of that work anyway. Now, though, I skipped past my unnecessary focus on realistic environment details and how I let those steer the direction of my hero’s actions, and have focused the camera on what’s important.
That was a key thing to remember: I control the camera. It does not control me. I do not need to show every moment of action from one point to another, even within a scene. I just need to convey the essence of the action and, more importantly, the emotional impact on my character. If she hides behind a stone to catch her breath during a breakneck run, then, I do not need to focus on the dimensions of the stone, but rather her embarrassment about giving up so quickly, and how fear is robbing her of her usual stamina, focus, and decision making.
So, with all that said, I have the scene moving in the right direction and have even introduced the first few lines of dialog from my best friend character. I’m not quite back to the word count I was at before tossing the previous work, but things are flowing much better now!