Replotting the path to Water Town

In response to the twitter freakout I had a little bit ago, I realized I was flaying my baby to the point that there was no life or love in it anymore. This, of course, is no good, so I got out an oversized sketch-pad and an offensively orange pen and wrote down what my troubles were. Aside from motivation issues and otehr problems I realized that the major problem here is that Cat didn't have a thing to do before she reached Water Town. She's the protagonist; if it's not important to her then it should not be included, even if it's developing the personalities of characters we'll be killing off shortly.

So this begs a new question; how can I accomplish the same end using Cat as a more prominent character. I won't get into all the details but suffice it to say I've run out of ink in my offensively orange pen and I have a plan for a new, better scene that will play out at the beginning of 60-90. It will involve the Brushcasters and will give Sharon and Kindle more definite direction. I hope it works in my favor... and that this new scene will eliminate a bunch of the questions and concerns that have been dogging me for months. Here is a short list of what I hope the new scene will accomplish for future reference:

1, It will include the Brushcasters without killing the action and explain a bit of what they are and how they work without having a lecture scene - although I like the lecture scene. I'll use as many elements from that as I can in this new scene.

2, It give Kindle a chance to be the hero again and take off through the wild blue yonder. With one more act of courage perhaps she will justify her existence?

3, It will put Cat in Chalsie-Veneer first, therefore allieviating a lot of the problems I had with getting people into town.

Wish me luck on this stuff, I'm not sure how it's going to work out. You might see some graveyard days go up here shortly as a result... or you might not because at this point the previous series of events is pissing me off so much I'd rather not look at them again.

I'm my own thief

I've run into an interesting problem of late... I keep stealing from myself.


I had to give Fire Town a whole rewrite for this new draft - the old way of things was meandering and unfocused so I had to punch it up. I worked on it for months until I got it just the way I like it... then moved on to Water Town and found - lo! In an effort to make Fire Town exciting I'd completely stolen Water Town's backstory! I guess I only have one idea at a time huh?

So this led to a decision; do I like Water Town's version better or Fire Town's version better. The answer is emphatically Water Town. Water Town's backstory has been the same as it is in one way or another since it's inception. So back I went to Fire Town to nip all the backstory out and replace it with another.... which was remarkably easy (go figure) The present was staying the same and a couple lines of dialog removed and replaced smoothed it all over. Then it was off to work on Water Town again.

Water Town doesn't get a WHOLE rewrite but it is getting a facial and a pedicure as it were... the beginning segment was horribly boring and needed a change. I came up with a great solution - it explained a ton and got everyone in the places they needed to be (which is a problem for me) and I wrote it as I was happy with it until I realized... I'd stolen that from Castleton in, like, the third scene! One trick pony - this am I.

It's because everything relates back to Cat and Peter's friendship - her stubbornness and his martyr complex.

In light of that though I think perhaps I might keep it...