Closer

Just a little bit closer, every day. Keep pushing, keep having a stab at it.
Today's efforts were again aimed at Plot, this time at the "Five Key Plot Points".

1. INCITING INCIDENT
2. LOCK IN
3. FIRST CULMINATION (Mid-point Crisis)
4. MAIN CULMINATION (Main Climax)
5. THIRD ACT TWIST

From what I've been reading, and understanding ( 3 Awesome Plot Structures for Building Bestsellers ) , the Five Key Plot Points is a "Fichtean Curve" and links to Libbie Hawker's (Take Off Your Pants) guidelines on Pacing (Triangles, see my post of June 4th). Lots of crises in the rising action leading up to the climax, very short falling action.

Taking Libbie Hawker's advice, each of the little curves is a chapter, is problem-solution, which builds the pace - the difference between a book that you can't put down and one that you put down all too easily.

Shapeshifting

Yesterday I did mention things, shapeless things, threatening to break out. I managed to snatch one, something must've bumped into it from the other side, from inside the mist. It staggered out, disoriented, it tried to get back but no, we were too fast for it this time. Fire a few nets over the top, run a few ropes round the legs, bring it crashing down. Only problem, every time you look at it it starts to change. We do have a man with a big stick, says he's going to have words with it, see if we can't get this story to decide what it wants to be. Might have to have Pirates involved, no swashbuckling, just nasty armed thieving bastards on boats.

Something is Hatching

Pigeon War happening overhead. I chuck bird seed onto the roof of my shed. A while after I enter the Shed of Doom and close the door, you will start to hear the odd dull thud as a Wood Pigeon graces the Avian land of milk and honey above. I really should put a camera up there, it never takes too long and it turns into the lunch-time matinee at the Colosseum. The scrabbling about, flapping, more thuds (sharper this time, heck knows what these guys are packing), lots of kerfuffle and then all of a sudden everyone legs it. I guess someone won.
Well, in spite of the feathered frenzy overhead I managed to chew through a bit more of the Ninja Writer's/Shaunta's Plotting Workshop.
And something is starting to take shape, shapeless movements threaten to break out, pushing the edge out and then slipping away again. Doesn't look like it's going to be a horror story at the moment. No, that's called Editing.
More fun tomorrow.

Just Write

Right, just write. Stop thinking about not knowing how, stop thinking you'll get it wrong. Just write. Editing is for fixing what doesn't work well, once you've finished the draft (do not edit on the fly).

And plan your time, give yourself goals and stick to the plan.

Talking to myself here. Needless to say today has been here, there and everywhere. Finding excuses instead of just getting on with things. And now that we've run out of time, well now all of a sudden I'm in the swing of things.

But, tomorrow is another day, and it is incredibly counterproductive to tell yourself off. Acknowledge that mistakes were made, and tomorrow we start off where we've left off today, writing.

Gone

Just four letters.
Gone.
Gone carries,
in some ways,
far more finality,
far more loss,
upon its wings
than does that five-lettered beast,
Death.
Death is witnessed.
Gone is nowhere to be found.
Gone carries worlds away,
Gone while you're not watching.

***

"I'm not from 'round here" he said, looking down at his hands, the lines and scars telling a story only he knew. "I'm from down there," pointing southward, still looking at his hands "and now it would seem that I'm not from there anymore either." He folded his hands in his lap, took a long deep breath, looked up. He looked me straight in the eye "Be careful, walk far enough and you switch worlds. When you try to go back, well," he took another pause, another long deep breath "well, you find things aren't the same. That world you walked away from, you walked too far son. All  gone."

Pacing

A main character, with a goal, has to struggle against something that gets in the way of that goal, and wins or loses the struggle.
Libbie Hawker, in her book "Take Off Your Pants", shows that this structure is the Outline of your story. Character Arc, Theme and Pacing woven together with the Outline, now we're talking.
Pacing was the theme of this evening reading, basically the outline structure repeated - for each chapter, for each scene, funneling the reader towards the Finale. Get this part right, and they wont be able to put the book down.
Nested triangles Libbie calls it. Reminds me of the (Math alert...) fractal tree outlining of a Sierpinski Triangle

The structure of the smallest part is replicated by the larger structure, and finally by the whole structure.

Sierpinski Triangle

Down Time

My apologies, to you and me, for my absence the last few days. A couple of big changes happening right now, so some Down Time was needed.

I did manage to give myWriting Shed a good tidy this afternoon, I have managed to fit another chair in. It will be my reading and musing chair, I can see a few naps creeping in too!

This week will be finishing off Libbie Hawker's book on outlining, and getting back to editing that Novel. "Breakout" I've entitled it, of course that could change. I've also a couple of Short Stories to finish off. As well as the Ninja Writer's Plotting Workshop (I might be trying to do too much at once...).