Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

CK's the one...

Carli's Kills is the next thing I'm working on. She's begun her tango with Zeke, and he's open to it, so I'll be plotting out the new version. I have a first draft of the script, but it was really more of a placeholder till I could figure out the story. Now that I know what's going on with Zeke and how he fits into Carli's life, I can dig in. Everything else is cascading from that.

Hmm...his revelation has changed the story more than I thought. I mean, I sort of had an idea about what was going on between those two, but it never really made sense to me. Too arbitrary and Hollywoodish. Plus, having Carli as a sniper just didn't work. It was more of an excuse to show her ability to shoot a rifle...and there are better ways to handle that. More honest ways.

I'm going to be too busy the next couple of days, getting ready for the Lisbon trip, to do any serious writing. At least CK is a manageable size as a printout, so I can deal with it on the plane trip. Right now I'm trying to get packing material set up for the job, and Staples Portugal is being a pain in the ass. They won't take a credit card, and the info they sent us for a monetary transfer isn't correct. Dammit.

I'm holding off on OT till I get back because I want to go through it in detail, distill what's in each chapter down to its simplest form, and have that to cross-reference what's happening when, why, how, and to whom. I've already worked out how to combine two characters into one, and I'm looking at another pair as a potential combination. Plus there's a secondary character I either need to do more with or get rid of...and I halfway think I may know how to manage that.

Maybe I should have started out knowing this story's details before I wrote it; mysteries are far more demanding than mere novels. You've got to have the clues set up without them being obvious or simplistic. You've got to have your red herrings. And once the thing's explained, it has to make sense. So far, I've either got too much of it all or not enough; can't decide.

Except for the ending -- that's now exactly like I want it...finally...

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