The Final 10% is 90% of the Work

Well, I’ve done it. I wrote through each of the scenes in my new, concise and focused outline. I didn’t ‘believe’ anything that was happening as I was writing it, but on cursory glance-over, a lot of the characters feel visceral, real, and like they’re actively making decisions and speaking their mind.

The document, unformatted, is about sixty pages long. Screenplay formatting ought to at least double that. So it may be longer than necessary.

I have two scenes left to write: First is a court scene where Stone defends and exonerates all of the innocent folks in the inn, as well as explains what really happened to Margo, the murder victim.

The second scene is the intro scene to the whole catastrophe.

I’ve long had an idea of guiding the reader through the alleyways of Paris, until they get to the inn. I wonder if I can retrofit it to bring the reader into Paris, or if this is simply an undead darling that needs to die again. What I want to do is introduce the inn as:

1. A place where people can get away from being overseen by those in power, and be themselves.
2. Rough around the edges, but fine enough.
3. Perhaps a bit strained by outside forces.
4. A place that readers will care about, and will miss once it’s gone and the story’s over.

Additionally, I want to introduce the theme of friendly fire, collateral damage, and things done in the name of the ‘greater good’. There is a political movement in America that wholeheartedly believes the only ‘good’ things must happen at the cost of other’s joy. Pain is the only thing that makes something ‘real’. So, I want to address that, using the metaphor of how a king will order a farmer’s crops to be burned as the farmer retreats into the protection of his castle. The invaders must not get those crops. Therefore…no one gets them. The metaphor will extend to places of safety…ie, an inn. To ensure his people’s ‘safety’, a king would absolutely burn his own buildings.

I’m also uneasily juggling the idea of the hidden hero, who lets someone else take the stage as the driving force for half the book before calmly stepping in and being the only one actually capable of handling a demonic situation. I started out mocking these characters up as already knowing each other as rivals from University, but as I wrote it didn’t make that much sense. Stone needs to act as nothing more than a goldsmithery scribe until his real profession (necromancy) is revealed. It just seems more fun and interesting for everyone else to know Stone’s potential but this other guy does not. I need to figure out more details about how they’re supposed to interact.

Then, once new scenes are written, what remains is revision. I had wanted to do all that this month, but SAWgust wasn’t helpful this year. It seems to be only helpful when I have thumbnails and art ready to go. Otherwise I simply don’t get much feedback at all. Nobody really comments on writing progress.

In addition to that, I must respect freelance work. So, Warlock’d has slowed a bit, but I’m glad to get the chance to collect my thoughts on my progress because otherwise it would feel like I’d done no work on it at all. It turns out I’ve done plenty here and I should be happier with it.

But, I guess the anxiety comes creeping in as it always does. I’ve never felt like Warlock’d was completely welcome at the table. It’s not something people seek out to read. It’s sort of feeling like something I’m forcing. I’d like to be able to move past this but it’s hard with no one to chat it through with.

That said, I think I will finally complete it this year and be somewhat interested in my own writing. Hopefully interested enough to do the artwork for it.

As a result of volunteering, I was very late writing my blog post here. I hope to include further Cocoon Year posts as part of my SAWgust progress. Already, I’m making a lovely amount of progress on my screenplay version of this story.

August is the worst month, but at least I have SAWgust!