Ugh. The tying down of plots and characters continues.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, part of the delay on finishing Manuscript 1 of “Jaed and Aston” has been in trying to parse out the finishing plot points for each of my characters. The biggest difficulty I’ve found in this process has been in fitting the final pieces for each character together concisely, without jamming too much info/action into one section.

For instance, one section that I have been polishing this week has three major plot points. New information is presented and certain characters run into each other, changing the course of the story. I debated splitting these beats into independent sections, but that would require me to write two or three separate sections containing more set-up, more filler text, and more fallout. I don’t like writing filler text for its own sake, so I saved myself (and my future readers) the trouble by just combining everything into one section. Now it’s action-packed, but not overwhelming.

Ideas tend to flow in and out of my mind like a river, and most of my “oh shit!” ideas come when I’m just daydreaming (hence, Daydream Springs). I had a few of those moments on Monday night, with fragments of dialogue or description coming to me that I can use in the final sections of the story, or insert in earlier portions to add some flavor.

Those moments tend to be what actually give me the most inspiration. Knowing that I am still caught up in making my story as interesting and in-depth as possible is a huge boost to my confidence and motivation. Even after all of this time, all of this work, I am still actively engaged in the telling of this story.

I think I pretty much have these plot holes all sorted now, although surprises are inevitable. My word count currently sits at 153,000, and it looks like my completed first draft will fall somewhere in the mid-160’s.

A weekend trip to see family aside, I want to knuckle down and start on revising the full draft next week. That thought is both exciting and daunting.

Steve D