Progress Report No.11

Finally, a breakthrough.

I was stuck on Chapter 24 for a month. Partly because I haven't been able to buckle down and write as much as I'd hoped (more on that later), but mainly because I was having immense trouble writing a specific scene with Rory and Rhys.

Dialogue has never been my strong suit. If anything, it's my weakest attribute. Compound this with the fact that I needed to write a very emotionally charged confrontation that essentially functions as a break-up scene... I was very afraid of verging into melodramatic, soap opera territory. Anyways, I finished that scene up this morning. So far, I'm pleased with the results--thought that may change when I read it again in a few months T______T And there was supposed to be a following scene in that chapter that depicts exactly how Rory ends up being expelled from Rosecrans... but I decided that the Rory+Rhys scene needed more room to breathe, or the pacing would be off. So all in all, Chapter 24 is done.... and at some point I need to figure out how to rearrange the chapters to fit in the missing scene. But all in all, roughly five chapters left to write for this first draft.

I was pretty optimistic about getting through it all by the end of summer, but with only two weeks left, I'm not so sure anymore. Part of the problem, unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess), is because I have discovered that being in a new relationship takes up a lot of time. Obviously, it's time that I enjoy spending--but that also means that many of my evenings that I would have spent solo typing away in a coffee shop are now spent cooking dinner together or watching a movie. Too bad writing is such a solitary event.

Oh well, no regrets. Next up is Charlotte's chapter, and plot-wise, things are starting to wind down a la "calm-before-the-storm" until the dramatic conclusion where all the shocking secrets are revealed wooooo. Down to the final stretch!!