No writing of my own--all w-f-h.

Was thinking about swordfighting ms, wondering if I'm all messed up and wrongheaded about it, and need to rethink from scratch again. Then I thought, no, the best thing to do (when I pick it up again) is to jump around as needed and work on the parts that have a strong sense of story to me. Of course, when I say "story" I don't mean what other people mean, because I don't have a strong sense of story. I mean the internal story, the emotional story, taking the MC on his emotional ride.

I know that doing this actually can work for me, process-wise. I ought to be able to leave little blanks where I understand what happens plotwise, then after I get enough of the emotional ride put together, to go back and hammer away at the gaps till they work in the emotional story, too. I remember I had to do that for Repossessed late in the revision process, in the scene near the end where the demon and Lane are together. I knew what happened plotwise, but couldn't get it right, so I had to just redo it and redo it till it came to life properly, in a way that meshed with the rest of the ms. So what I need in the swordfighting ms is a strong emotional drive for the MC--at least in my head--and I need enough of it to provide a firm base so that I can leap over the gaps where plot must step in and carry the story. I can fill in the gaps once I have the rest.

The question is, can I get enough of the emotional story for that firm base? I'll have to think hard, and go back to the part where the dad dies and take it afresh (in my head, not writing it out yet) from there. I'll have to toss out the plot and just focus on what is going on at the moment and think what happens next. How will this connect with the plot I already have? No idea whatsoever. G*d help me, maybe it won't, and my lovely plot will have to be tossed.

Was thinking about the movie 300 and the movie The New World, and how some critics hated 300 (the Thermopylae movie) because it was more style than story, but loved The New World (Terrence Mallick movie re. John Smith, Pocahontas, et al.) because it was more style than story. I like them both because in each case the style is strong and seems to me to match the story. I'm not sure if the anti-300/pro-NewWorld critics are snobs, or if my teenage-guy streak is prejudicing me.

I think both movies have extensive voiceovers. What is the equivalent of a voiceover in a novel? Not sure, and no time to consider right now because I must get back to w-f-h.