I went to the rock to hide my face; the rock cried “Ain’t no hidin’ place!”

So, a couple days ago I did the read-through (and fly-edit) of the first 60 grand of Necessity’s Child, then brought the blood-soaked pages back to the desk to input the changes.

And stalled at Chapter Four, because, um.

Let’s just say that Chapter Four is a Pivotal Chapter and it’s kicking my can.

Anyhow, this morning, in-between bread-punching, laundry, and torturing Mozart, I sat on the couch with a yellow pad and a pen, and Brooded.  I also doodled.  And made lists about other parts of the story, and had an epiphany, which is that I was holding shy of the villain ’cause they scare me.  As they should.  Very scary villain, here.  Just so you know.  And doodled some more, and realized that Chapter Four needed to explicate the Top Level Conflict, not the Secondary Conflict.  Which helped about as much as you’d think it would, so I went back to making lists, and realized the perfect time for the villain to — well, never mind.  But it’s awesome, really.  At least, I’m in awe.  Also kind of bummed that I hadn’t thought of it weeks ago.  And doodled.  And wrote some dialog.  And a little more dialog, and went back and made notes on the Big List of Stuff that Has to Happen before I wrote some more dialog, and…

I don’t want to be Unduly Optimistic, but I think I may have Chapter Four nailed.  The writing will tell, of course, but — I think I’ve got it.

Of course, that means that the information that’s actually in the present-but-soon-to-be-former Chapter Four has to go someplace else, because it is important, just not important where it is.  But I think I can sprinkle bits here and there throughout the existing chapters.

Fascinating, nu?

In far more interesting news, I see that Frency and the Punk’s Kickstarter campaign to raise production money for their next two CDs is less than $200 short of their goal.  And!  They say that, if donations total more than the basic production costs, the overage will go toward producing a lyrics book, which excites me, because, well.  Y’all know how I feel about lyrics.

OK, so.  The bread’s about ready to put in the oven, and we should rustle up some lunch.  After that, it’s the big Chapter Four rewrite.

Spot me; I’m going in.