Shaping Titles

I’ve found a rhythm of shifting between POVs and storylines that has become quite natural

…to the extent that if I’m not careful I can veer into the next storyline before appropriate for the time line and *really* confuse things…

And it works most of the time.

One of the sorting out sessions that I did a few months ago had to do with peeling apart a few multiple-POV scenes and giving them their own breaks– numbers and titles– and their own line in the spreadsheet.

A Great Honkin scene that jumped multiple times between Kennett and Tykone was divided into two (merely) Honkin scenes that I worked with today.

These were designated, for lack of better handles, “Finding and Losing” (Kennett learning his wife was sentenced to death) and “Losing and Finding” (Tykone hunting for a murderer and finding, well you’ll see when you read it.)

Anyway, as I juggled the old and new parts of these scenes, trying to bring them to a level-seven polished-ness, I realized they both had a single natural break left in them (more then natural, they were begging for a breather).  So I split each, then realized I needed another set of handles.

I was still attached to the idea of reversed titles since the time lines were so close and overlapping.  I chose, nearly randomly, Failing to Plan and Planning to fail.

And now that I have finished both scenes they are both of them quite reasonable handles, suggesting what I would leave in and what I could cut out.

So, now I can’t decide if that’s bad.

To make titles and then make the scene fit their predictions.  Or is that really good instincts, coming up with a set of titles that gave focus that was previously lacking?

Maybe I’ve just got really good luck.  That I depend on.  (A la the Baggins.)

“It’s not that I believe in miracles-I depend on them.”

Nearly done.

  • Cleaned 9 scenes (two newly extradited)
    • 68 (consecutive) pages.
  • Rearranged several scenes to clarify sequence and motivation
  • Pages remaining: 34
  • Current word-count: 116,012.
  • Next “guaranteed” work-day: Monday, October 5

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