And Another Thing . . .

Welp, I now have a photo of what my books look like:

That’s a selfie taken by Paul Ryan with DC interns. If I hadn’t already been convinced to diversify, this picture would have done it because I am now officially as clueless as Paul Ryan. Must fix that.

In other news . . .

I’ve been working on Nita’s book, trying to wrap my head around a million things. Like the Big Picture of the book.

Naturally, spoilers to follow.

So I write in four acts because that’s a good rhythm for me. First act starts the conflict on the first page and then sets up the world, the community, the plot, the subplots, everything.

At the end of the first act, all the information has to be on the page and the next three acts play it out to a climax. August Wilson said to start a story after everything but action is over. I love that, and I try to follow it, but I definitely follow it after the first turning point (or second if you call the beginning scene/turn out of the stable world as the first turning point). The second act is direct pursuit of the goal, gathering information/power/forces, etc.that leads to the mid point which is the point at which everything has changed so much that there’s no possible return to the same world that the protag lived in at the beginning. She’s changed too much. So at the turning point, she does something that throws her into a much more escalated conflict, focused on action and direct attack until the crisis point where she loses, which destroys any remnants of what she once was. She picks herself up (because her only other choice is to give up, and we don’t do that here in Crusieland), and throws herself back into the fray to meet the antag at the climax and, since this is a Crusie, kick his ass.

Okay, those are broad descriptions and I don’t always follow them. But they’re a good template for when I’m looking at a lot of miscellaneous scenes that may or may not go in the book and start to sort them out by chronology because I can look at where Nita is in her evolution in that particular scene and know where it goes in the Big Picture, that is, which act it goes in.

So right now, the story is:

Act One: Nita meets Nick and finds out she’s only part human and most of what she knows about reality is missing a few memos. She begins a tentative alliance with Nick

Act Two: Nita tries to cope with her new identity while joining with Nick to find the killers (Nita’s goal) and the gates (Nick’s goal), goals that are linked. As they start to take apart the island to find hidden truths, Nita’s identity takes another couple of hits until at the end, she’s pretty much shed her old ideas of who she is and is trying to embrace the new Nita. Also embracing the new Nita is Nick; I think they become lovers at the end of this act. Maybe. It depends on how much Nick has evolved by this point, but I think he has to be pretty much back to human by now; no point in dragging that out. Still dead, of course, but human again. And Nita’s still alive, and not human. Nice character cross there.

Act Three: Nick and Nita are a team at this point and they’re making great progress, finally narrowing down the antagonist and vanquishing him, only to find out that there’s somebody else behind him, and that somebody launches a full-out attack to bring them down. I think Nick gets dragged back to Hell again here.

Act Four: Nita’s fighting the good fight with the team, but Nick’s gone so she goes to Hell to get him back, and then they both come back to the island apocalypse. For some reason I have the last scene of Angel in my head for that. Nick wants to fight the dragon. (Is there a dragon? I dunno.)

So back to Act One, which is written but not completely revised. Since it’s going to be about 33K once I get it cut, it needs to be conceptualized in narrative chunks (which should not be confused with scene sequences).

ACT ONE

1. Intro/Set-Up/Beginning of Conflict

Nita meets Button, fights with Mort and Clint

Nick makes Vinnie make him a partner

*Nita meets Nick, both knock each other off stride

Nick talks to Belia, deals with Vinnie Daglas and Rabiel

Button goes home with Nita, shoots a demon.

2. Something Is Not Right

*Nita has breakfast with Nick, still doesn’t believe him, but Mort shows up.

*Nita at the Mortuary/disappearing bodies.

Nick at the Historical Society with Marvella.

Nita talks with lieutenant, has a very bad feeling.

Button trying to fit in, works with Nita in the squad room, puzzled. (They’re talking about Nick, so that’s a semi-asterisk.)

3. Confrontation

*Nita meets Nick for lunch

Nick goes to Cromas, gets yanked into Hell (Mammon, Max, Sequins, et al.)

Button and Nita at hotel with Mort

*Nita confronts Nick at bar, meets Mammon

*Nita and Nick go to Cromas

*Nick and Nita go to Sadie

*Nita and Nick go to Nature Preserve

4. Revelation

*Nita at Bar with Nick, Mom Arrives

*Nita between time

*Nick at Bar, sorting things out

Button with Max and Sequins

*Nita upstairs with Nick, holding onto sanity

*Nita next AM: Cold Light of Day

ACT TWO:

*Breakfast with Nick

The asterisks are scenes of Nita and Nick together. If this is a romance, there aren’t enough of them, so that’s a problem. Also, I have to look at the escalation here . . .

Really, I just want to keep up with the news. I’m a political junkie and while everything about the Republicans makes me want to throw something at a white guy, I cannot look away.

But now, back to work.

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