Got family stuff done, will work on former GN tonight. However, while walking Tyson I was thinking about the swordfighting ms, and sort of taking in the fact that the plot might not actually get started till halfway through the book. I thought, "That's a lot of setup--half a book--and how on earth can it not be boring?" Then I thought, "The story doesn't start halfway through the book, because the story isn't about what happens." The story--including the stuff that starts farther in (that used to be the beginning)--is this about MC's maturation, disillusionment, etc. His father getting killed isn't setup that spurs him to later action.* It's part of what changes him. What I was thinking of as setup needs to be considered with the same weight as the plotline that kicks in later. Every event in the so-called "setup" needs to be given the same consideration as events that happen down the road. I need to look carefully at each piece as I work on it; I think some may still be transitional/informational, but now I feel that plenty of them are going to be more concrete steps on the character's inner journey.

Now, I may have been already halfway thinking this way in the back of my mind, but I probably need to be more deliberately aware. What I need to do--probably--is to keep the big picture of the character's arc in mind as I work on these things, and not focus so much on how he felt/thought last chapter and what changes now that so-and-so happens in this chapter and how it leads to next chapter.

I doubt I'll absorb this idea enough to put it in play for a while; knowing me I'll have to realize it several times before it sinks in. I can't word it clearly enough yet for my mind to internalize what it really means as far as hands-on daily work. But thinking it is a good start.


*Well it is, but I need to stop thinking of it that way because it's causing problems.