Sunday 9th April 2017

One thing has been on my mind all throughout a very busy day today.  Plotting out these next two chapters last night, I had a problem where I need a secondary character to not be in the scenes.
That sounds simple, right?  Just omit him, or say he’s doing something.  Trouble is, that doesn’t work.  At the start of the scene he’ll definitely be there, given when we last saw him he had injuries and wasn’t too mobile.  And somehow just doing the equivalent of saying he’s popped out for milk just seems like a cop-out.  So I need him there at the start, I just don’t want him there when something happens.
And this has been bugging me all day.  It seems like such a simple problem to solve.  I considered making him have an argument with our hero so he storms off.  I thought about our hero warning him and getting him to leave.
But it just all feels too… convenient.
It bugged me all the way to sparring this morning.  So much so that I was half-way down the M4 before I realised I’d not scheduled The Climb for today.  I somehow left late and arrived early.  I took the vlogging camera with me as well as the camcorder to do some filming and so I started doing a bit to camera until my friend Lizzie turned up and I felt a bit stupid.
We didn’t have many for sparring today but we more than made up for it.  I had some really good bouts and with 2 cameras I’ve got the chance to edit the different angles together.  If only I had the time.
I was pleased how I fought.  I wasn’t demolishing everyone but I felt fairly sharp and I think my secret weapon for morning fights is 2 bowls of porridge.  I just need to find something that will have a similar effect if tournaments last into the afternoon (see Untournament)
Nobody was doing the pub afterwards, which I was secretly glad of.  When I make my Thai Red curry on Saturday night, it ends up being massive.  And then I eat it all and find myself bloated the next day.  So last night I saved half of it with the view that I would try and be good and not eat at the pub but probably would come home filled with pub food and throw the curry away.
I stopped in Newbury and picked up some new caps.  I think this is starting to become a bit of an obsession now.  I see Winnipeg has a Lids outlet store which means I’ll be buying a load when I get out there.  I also want to get one for each state I visit on my storm chasing adventure.
Got home and ate the saved Red Thai Curry.  Was still feeling bad that I never went to the gym yesterday and because I wanted to get some video footage, I walked into town.
Considering I had been sparring solidly for 2 hours, I was quite impressed with my performance.  I ran a 5km in 31:45 which is my fastest yet.  However, I’ve learnt not to wear my basketball vests when running as I came away with a serious case of runner’s nipple.   I then went on the pullups and didn’t embarrass myself (unlike the woman who went on the machine and was using it as a leg press – I so wish I’d got footage of that).
It wasn’t the greatest of workouts, but I felt accomplished and so headed home.  I also got a bit of footage of the gym on my iPhone, so feel like I have enough content for a decent 001 vlog.
I’ve come to the conclusion that, for several reasons,  the vlogs are probably going to be irregular to start with.  Firstly, some days I go outside and do things.  Some days I stay inside and do nothing.  Secondly, I don’t think I could get them edited on a daily basis.
I am still wondering how the vlog would differ from The Climb.  I think it needs to be its own thing rather than The Climb – Video Edition.  But I guess the best thing to do is just to try it and see how I get on.
I got home and had a shower, before sitting down with dinner and some Youtube.  I’ve subscribed to so many people over the last few weeks that there’s a good 30 mins of new content waiting for me every day.
As I’d not sorted out my dilemma with the chapters and the unwelcome secondary character, I decided to play some Star Wars The Old Republic.  I’m aware that the bonus XP event finishes in 2 days and I’m only up to level 57.  However, the heroic areas have suddenly started getting a bit tougher and I’m actually starting to die when I pull a huge pack of mobs.
It was whilst playing this that I found the answer to my problem.  I made the decision to not try and remove the secondary character but instead leave them there.  Of course, that means he’ll be there when the EVENT happens.  But I made the changes to the event.  Firstly, it’s more in keeping with the final revelation and should work to start tying the two plot strands in the novel together.  Secondly, I worked out an incredibly simple but natural reason why the secondary character could be at the event and have a different outcome.  And again, it ties in nicely with the rest of the book.
So despite the vagueblogging  (It’ll make sense in a couple of years when you read the book, trust me) I’m super-pumped that I’ve managed to solve this quandry and in doing so I think I’ve enhanced the scenes and the characters.
I think that’s how I know when an idea is right.  It sort of pops into focus and everything already in place just naturally fits around it.  It’s a great feeling as trying to solve these problems can feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall.
I started writing the first draft of it tonight.  It features a couple of bad guys and I really had to find the balance between having them infodump their plans, and making them fun villains on the page.  Got about 1700 words done so I’m super happy with that, even if it’ll need revision in the next draft.
Most importantly, the secondary character fits seamlessly into the scene.  I reckon I could make it better through foreshadowing by having one action constantly done throughout the book so that when it happens in this chapter the reader thinks it a fun little character moment rather than a major plot point.
I’m not going to have a lot of time to write tomorrow, which is annoying.  The weekend has seemed to go too fast once again, although I think I had a pretty productive couple of days.  Next week is a shortened week due to Eastercon but I’m hoping that being in a hotel for a couple of days without video games and other distractions will result in me having a burst of writing.
Ten chapters to go.  All going well I should be finished around the time the editorial notes come back.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels.  Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.

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