Dissatisfied with my progress over the past couple of days, and especially how the words were not flowing, today I was determined to get into a rhythm. That means not stopping myself or second-guessing my wording. It also means picturing the bits of action or dialogue in my head before I start putting them down on the screen.
Today, it worked and I made it to over 900 words, which is good for how this project has gone so far. By picturing the dialogue I was going to write and how it would impact my characters in advance, I was able to get through it a little more easily.
I also decided to slice my scene in half and switch back to my main POV for the latter part. This way, each half of the scene (well, they are two scenes now) is told from the perspective of the person less comfortable in that environment. That gives me more opportunity for description of the city, and lets me trace both character’s emotions.
Part of what made this easier was a section I was reading in Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering today. While that book is frustrating, in general, and I cannot recommend it, there are some good nuggets buried in there. The problem is that he spends about 75-80% of his time trying to be persuasive about why the reader should follow his model or giving 4 analogies when even 1 isn’t necessary. The actual advice is buried between the fluff and sometimes covered so quickly that you can miss it.
But in his discussion of story structure, one point he made was that the first quarter of the book should be set up of the character and the stakes they face. It does not need to launch directly into the action of the story. That was important to give me permission to use these scenes to focus more on introducing my characters and the world without having to worry about advancing the plot in each moment.