header

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Working out the details

As I get further and further into the book, I have less and less plot detail from which to work. This is intentional; the beginning MUST have certain elements in order to set up what will happen later. But, while this leads to a freedom of pacing, some good spontaneity of action, etc, it presents me with occasional problems when I get to bits in my outline that say things like "Crogan escapes from being chained to the post." That's a lot more easily thought of than executed. My protagonists, while in possession of decent athleticism, are hardly Cirque du Soleil material, so they can't do anything that a regular person wouldn't do... In these situations, I sometimes have to put myself in whatever situation they are in physically in order to figure out the logistics of how the scene will play out.


 Luckily, my wife is a patient and kind assistant when it comes to these matters, and is kind enough to be around in case I, say, break my arms or something. She also snaps reference shots! Where would I be without her? Anyway, now I know how he escapes! Just a little behind-the-scenes-process stuff, if anyone's interested.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That's funny! And of course we're interested! It's interesting to see how everyone handles plot issues, and also nice to know when we're not alone. =)

Ender13 said...

Just make sure you don't make Liz mad before you put yourself in a that position. She could snap and fly into a pregnant rage. Kind of like the Hulk.

Sean McGowan said...

That is really interesting. Hopefully it adds some extra spontaneity and believability to the story. Thanks for sharing.

Dan said...

I'd say you may want to get to the parts of the book that don't require you to escape anything as it gets closer to baby time. That would be a fun story "Well, we weren't planning on having the little tyke in the backyard but..."