I know where my story needs to go next, in general, but I hadn’t thought the scenes out this far in advance, so I’m at the point where I need to create them one-by-one with only the memory of my storyline to keep me on direction.
I spent all of this morning planning the next scene. I’m trying to stick to the advice from Story Engineering and have each scene focus on just one piece of exposition. In this case, it is where my characters will be going for shelter while they decide on the next move. The scene has a natural lull in it, when one character – the only one that knows where they are going – disappears to get the supplies they need, and leaves my hero and jester together, alone in the woods and with both not knowing what comes next.
That bit has the potential to turn into long introspection, but I need to keep it trimmed, show just enough for readers to understand each woman’s internal conflict and how they are facing the impact of the inciting incident. But at the same time, I need my hero, in particular, to be looking forward and to what she needs to be doing next – or at least, I need her to realize that’s what she needs to do.
Pulling off that middle lull looks to be the biggest challenge over the next few days.