author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Today's type-in didn't cover much more ground, page-wise, but it had its satisfying moments.

Here's what was covered: Sasha is still sitting in the ice cream parlor with her journal. Now that some of her hostile classmates are arriving, she's covering up her unease by caricaturing them in her writing. She flinches away from writing about the boys who were harassing her today. Then her sister walks in and they get to talking.

Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? I know. But I'm feeling happy with the way I restructured the concept. Before, it was one long paragraph in which she considers writing unflattering portrayals of Stan and Tina. Now, I actually include some quotes from her journal to contrast with the real live football jock and cheerleader girlfriend.

Another thing about this scene: Stan and Tina were a one-hit wonder during NaNoWriMo. I pulled some names out of the blue for the sake of, y'know, having names. Natalie Goldberg would advise, "Say 'crepe myrtle', not 'tree'." So I try to be specific. But James MacDonald, of the notoriously hefty Learn Writing With Uncle Jim thread at AbsoluteWrite, would say, "Don't name a character unless you plan to do something with him." Which puts me in mind of the old adage about firearms and mantlepieces: If in Act I a gun is shown prominently displayed above the fireplace, by Act III it should have fallen into the fire and blown up. Or, failing that, someone should have pulled the trigger.

Thus, I tweak. About two-thirds into the original plot, we have an icky scene in which Hector and Jason take bullying to a new level and actually try to rape Sasha. She fights them off and goes home planning to sic her magic notebook on them. This scene is augmented by an insinuation that H&J had earlier succeeded in doing the same to one of Sasha's classmates, which gives Sasha's vengeance extra fuel: "I can't let them hurt anyone else." So, noting my "one-hit wonder" critique of Stan and Tina in Chapter One, I ditch the random classmate and substitute Tina for the unpleasant role of Martyr For The Main Character's Cause. (Sorry, Tina.)

But then I got to thinking about working Stan and Tina's relationship into the plot. Maybe H&J assault Tina out of some warped urge to use her to hurt Stan? If so, why? Maybe because Stan came to Sasha's rescue one day when H&J were harassing her. That makes the bullies a little more human, or at least a more understandable specimen of sociopathy: They aren't simply monsters hanging out in the bushes waiting to pounce on the next skirt walking by. Instead, they're acting from a monstrously twisted desire for pay-back. We can hold them up as a model that Sasha, in her own quest for revenge, imitates and, we hope, shies away from before she becomes a monster herself.

So all we need now is to give Sasha a scene in which she A) successfully repells a serious attack from Hector and Jason, and B) is inspired to new depths of unethical magic. At this point, do I really need H&J to actually attack Sasha herself? Why not let the attack on Tina do double-duty, and lower the stakes back to the level of plot necessity at the same time? Have Sasha interrupt the attack and rescue Tina. This, incidentally, rescues Hector and Jason, too--rescues them from themselves.

So now the bullies are established as Really Bad, Sasha is demonstrated to be Bad Ass, and motivation for vigilante voodoo is created. The sexual assault count of the novel lowers from "totally maudlin" down to "probably necessary to the plot, but I'm still thinking about it." And for an added bonus, the mouse repays the lion. That is: Stan saves Sasha; Sasha saves Stan's girlfriend. (It works out if you consider Stan and Tina a single entity for the sake of plot algebra.) Sasha gets a little proof (which she'll ignore for the moment but learn to appreciate later) that she doesn't need magic to make friends, and thus the moral of the story is quietly reinforced.

Now that's making a scene work for its money!

Please note: The above narration of my thought processes makes me sound horribly callous about sexual assault. I'm not. Promise. It just comes across that way when I sit down and plot out a novel. Try writing one yourself; you'll see.