Was thinking, briefly about working through this WIP vs. working through the swordfighting one. What I seem (maybe) to do is latch onto a realization or emotion or connection or confrontation, and develop a scene around that. I wonder if there's some way to overhaul the sf WIP by trashing it and coming at it from this angle. Can you do that, if the character's actions and choices are already mapped out and must follow a prescribed course? Will it flow naturally, or will it fail because it's necessarily forced? I keep hitting a huge barrier every time I get even one little bit of a scene wrong because it made logical sense but wasn't perfect emotionally. As soon as I go back and feel out the correct emotional sense, everything flows from there.

I don't know what would happen with an entire ms that makes logical sense; I don't know if it's possible for me to integrate my seat-of-the-pants method (which has its strong points, believe it or not) with a more structured method. It seems that if I could break the chapters down into smaller parts somehow, approach the towering structure of plot that is already there by wee little emotional increments, I might be able to feel out a way to make it work for me. But I don't know. I might hit one big barrier from day one because the whole story came out of my head and I didn't feel my way into it.