BMAS Brogress Bost #2 (Patreon)

Hi, progress has been made since the last post. I am rewriting (not just revising) Between Music And Silence, with a focus on the characters and their voices, making them feel real and engaging.

I have now begun rewriting Act 2, which is a big deal since the Prelude and Act 1 have been worked on so long and gone through so many stages while Act 2 hasn't seen major changes for years.

In rewriting for characters, I feel like I have to start from the beginning and only move forward when I'm sure everything is definitely on the right track; otherwise I feel like I'll lose the characters and their voices gradually. Then I won't be able to pinpoint when it all went wrong, and the characters will be lost. That's because my default mode is to write characters as emotionless cardboard, and I easily slip back into that mode all the time. (I wish this weren't the case. But it probably has to do with the fact that I'm not exactly an interesting character myself; I am pretty impersonal.)

 So moving onto Act 2 means I'm pretty confident that the entirety of Act 1 is good enough at least to keep you reading. It's chock-full of conspicuous Chekhov's Guns that do not explain themselves--including the main villain and one of the three main characters--which gives it a mysterious quality of things just turning up out of nowhere.

Another reason Act 2 has barely been touched is because I've had such trouble writing the three main characters together as a trio. I think it's starting to work though. Something that helped was actually to remove some stakes from the plot so that the characters can goof off. Thrin makes use of the fact that Silas is oblivious to all nature.

Besides Thrin basically coming alive as a character with her own conflict and motivation clearly defined (after so much brainstorming), Silas is also getting improvements to his arc across the story. A lot of it is just making his choices and transformation more clear and telegraphed; I have realized I could change one of his pivotal scenes from a long, drawn-out conversation with the villain into just one action beat that "says it all."

I'm excited to show off the improved version of the story. Happy Thanksgiving