From the Forge…
Fun fact: I’ve never reached Act II before. In anything I’ve written. Ever. I give up or hunt for Dopamine elsewhere long before Act II. Much like exercise, I can only walk on the treadmill or cycle or row for so long before I get bored. And this feels a lot like pedaling away without going anywhere.
I’ve been writing a court scene this week. It’s not exciting and doesn’t advance the plot, but it shows my main character stuck in the slog that is Act II. Just like me. From what I understand, this is where I can show the protagonist thriving in their day-to-day or failing at life. Actually, my protagonist has spent most of Act II experiencing the mundane as a public defender (and he’s good at NONE of it); sitting in court for hours, spending evenings with clients at the jail, hearing excuses from the clearly guilty, and negotiating plea deals that keep the system moving. Combine that with a law partner he can’t trust and an old flame that’s burned him more than once, and I have the makings of an Act II that’ll end in a train wreck.
But writing it isn’t fun and advancing the plot without giving him too many wins is proving difficult. Often it feels like his whole motivation of taking over his father’s law practice while trying to expose a decades-long drugs conspiracy gets lost in the mundane. Or his attention (and mine) gets diverted by exploring personal relationships of the “B-Characters” in his life.
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel has been my reference point here. At the start of every scene of what it calls the “Fun & Games” beat, I try to come up with creative ways to make my protagonist feel like they take one step forward, then two steps back. Each win is followed by a gut punch. I’m supposed to decide on his trajectory for the remainder of Act II and as of now…it’s downhill. But while I’m handing out “L’s”, I gotta keep this story moving. Is the key to a murder conspiracy in his father’s old files at the law firm? Who all’s involved? Is it tied to a drug ring operating in the Midwest for decades? How’s my protagonist going to uncover it? Who’s gonna help him?
For the foreseeable future, I’ll be finding new and creative ways to sprinkle answers throughout Act II.
Word Count Since Last Time…
What I Wish I Wrote
For some reason, I’ve decided on The Shining as my summer read (I reserved it at my public library and expected to get access sometime in 2028…but it showed up two weeks ago). The only Stephen King I’ve read has been one short story and On Writing. Every book of his I’ve ever seen since childhood has been thick as a cinder block and just as dense. At least I thought until I started reading The Shining. I’m sure there are as many devoted Stephen King fans as there are those who say “eh…he’s hit or miss”, but I may be a convert now. I wanted to feature an inspirational quote or maybe some witty dialogue here, but not today. I haven’t flown through a novel this quickly in years and I think that’s why I can’t settle on one snippet because it’s the pacing for me that’s exceptional. Everything feels purposeful; whether it’s the slow-drip of character development, the foreshadowing of tragedy, or a setting that transports. “What I Wish I Wrote” this week really isn’t The Shining, but something that clean.
