It CAN’T Be That Easy

So you know I’ve been poking at structure lately. Tonight mostly as a lark, (to look as if I were doing something) I started poking at working out a plot for Kolya.

I started free-form. Just…writing things down as they occurred to me. That was getting me nowhere fast, and someone wanted to war, so I grabbed one of the character packets from Holly Lisle’s Create a Character clinic and filled it out for Kolya. That worked better. It was funny, too, because you’re supposed to answer the questions as the character would–and Kolya didn’t understand the questions. Ethics? Morals? Hee…

Anyway. I wanted to start with a good structure to the story. I’ve done enough editing now to know that’s the hardest thing to fix–when your climaxes are in the wrong place, and your story meanders down to an ignominious end…

So I grabbed the drawing of four-act structure (oh hush, it’s three-act only drawn differently) from Jennifer Crusie’s blog and started shoving things at it.

And…I got it. Inciting incident, first goal, first complication, building action, midpoint (AKA the Point of No Return), the Darkest Moment, the climax… I got it. It’s not all nailed down tight, but I wouldn’t want it to be. I’ve got the shape. I’ve got a tenuous grasp on the edge of a theme.

I’ve got it. Need to get a couple more characters a little more clearly than they are now, and off I’ll go. Or maybe I’ll add some more to the “outline” first. Figure out a scene or three.

I guess we’ll see what happens?

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