Weeks 9-10: A Sense of Progress

The Skinny

I mapped out 140 scenes and reached the end of the first outline. I am now reorganizing the story with special attention to promises, payoffs, subplots, and a sense a progress.

 

The News

  • I added several characters based on the plot trajectory from last week.

  • I wrote an author bio and hook (the text from the back cover) for The Dagger-Pierced Heart.

  • I had headshots taken for my website spmurphyauthor.com - the site will launch this month!

The Middle

The middle of a story is the easiest place to get lost. The beginning is difficult because it requires promises and clues to be laid out and propel the story forward. The ending is difficult because the story must make good on all its promises. But the middle is difficult because often it's unclear what is required.I rewatched Brandon Sanderson's 2016 lectures on plot. He points out that what the reader is looking for in the middle of a story is a sense of progress. In My Fair Lady, Eliza begins to speak proper English. Hamlet discovers with certainty that Claudius killed his father. Gatsby and Daisy are reunited at last.So as Samuil Nasiliov investigates, I'll need to give the sense that he is becoming the man he needs to be in order to deserve to solve the mystery of his father's imprisonment.

Working Title