Yeah, right
Over the weekend I managed to finish chapter ten… a shorter chapter than many others, and I think that accounts for some of my pacing concerns through this part of the manuscript. Though the scenes certainly don't feel hurried when I'm writing them, these particular sections are densely packed with information and plot momentum. At least, it feels like it to me when I'm re-reading it, even though I know perfectly well that we've still got a whole lot of story to get through before we reach the end.
Still, sometimes it takes writing a few subsequent chapters and then going back to review it before I can really tell if the pacing is off or if it just felt a little unwieldy during the draft process, so I guess I'll go over it a couple more times and then move on. That's what a girl has beta readers and editors for, right? :)
In milestone news, however, I have officially cracked page 100 of the rough draft! Very excited by this. *grins* And, according to my updated word count I'm just a wee bit over halfway through the book at this point.
Up next is another big battle scene, probably one of the biggest of the entire story. I'm struggling a little with figuring out how to appropriately incorporate Kade's shaa'din powers as she develops them. I'm pretty sure that a lot of readers may end up rolling their eyes and going "Well, wasn't that just so convenient?" I've heard a few comments like that even from SotG readers, and I do understand that having it all wrapped up in a pretty bow is not particularly satisfying, especially if the challenges they're facing have been built up into this huge, ominous conflict. The reader expects a big, satisfying, OMG way out for the protagonists. The characters have to at least get beat up a little. There has to be the possibility that they could lose. Sometimes a real loss needs to take place in order to up the stakes enough.
The problem, of course, with a happy-ending romance novel, is that we pretty much all know that the good guys are going to win in the end. Even if they lose a few battles somewhere in the middle (The Empire Strikes Back, anyone?) they still have to come out of it alive for the story to keep going, so even then it can't be a complete and utter failure. And there's a level of disbelief on both sides of the equation that has to be kept in balance. If the battle's too difficult, the reader asks "what's the point of being a special magical holy warrior if your "powers" are essentially powerless?" But if it's too easy, then you get the "yeah, right, Mary Sue much?" response. *sigh* I'm a bit worried that, in order to demonstrate all the things Kade is able to do (and thereby justify the big climactic scenes at the end) I'm going to end up with a lot of "yeah, right" readers on the journey there.
Some of that I can tackle directly in the manuscript, by letting the characters themselves give the "yeah, right" response on behalf of the reader. I have a couple other options, too. I could throw in an extra character, one whose sole purpose is to get the reader good and attached to their lovableness so that when I kill them off it creates that sense of loss and upping the stakes. That feels like a bit of a cheap machination, though. I could (and in a couple of places, plan to) bring other characters to the very edge of death and yank them back at the last possible moment, after much angsting and drama, of course. But the yanking back, no matter how hard I make it on the heroes, will still always smack of convenience, won't it?
*sigh* I'm probably overthinking the whole thing. Most of my favorite tv/movie/book storylines of all time are chock full of overly-convenient plot twists, anyway, and that never stopped me from absorbing them eagerly. I think maybe I should just let the story tell itself the way it wants, and see what it looks like when it's all said and done…
