Playing At Penelope
Tue 2005-07-26 21:45:40 (in context)
- 35,574 words (if poetry, lines) long
- 53.50 hrs. revised
On the one hand, Chapter 7 is looking mostly figured out for me. There's a certain amount of plot necessity that makes much of the decision-making unnecessary: Brian's been running a lot these three weeks, so when he cuts and runs at the end of the chapter Amy isn't going to be able to keep up with him. That means she needs to know where he's going in order to meet him there. That means she has to have observed him spending time down by the lake. That means he has to have spent a lot of time at the lake. So all I need to do is figure out a plausible way for her to find out about his excursions.* No decision-making needing. I just need to figure out the stage directions and then take dictation.
On the other hand, I just read through the rest of the rough draft's first half, all the text up until Brian hits the water and starts swimming. Deleted it in its near-entirety. That would explain the word count dropping by about 7,000 today. The word count would have taken even more of a hit, but I left in a few paragraphs whose material looked recyclable.
Tomorrow I'm going to put in some extra time, set myself a 5,000 word goal. Goodness knows I've got nowhere to be for most of the day but on the page. That means maybe finish Chapter 7 and then head right into Chapter 8, which should go much faster and easier, being all the sexy dramatic stuff that's so much sinful fun to write. "Candy bar scenes," as Holly Lisle likes to say. Mmmm. Candy. Candy good.
*Oh hey! I just figured it out! She'll be sitting up on top the sun-dial hill (symbol: time running out) when she sees him walking into the park. Curious, she'll come down once or twice in the following days and, sure enough, she'll see him there. That'll give her enough reason to guess that she'll find him in Gasworks Park when he runs away after trying to kill Russ. Bingo! I Win!