still devising an evil plot to take over the world bwahahahaha!

The logic of plotting is my greatest failure as a writer, especially in novel length form. At some point (I'm there with SCAR) I have to map out what I've done. I tend to work from synopsis, which gets mussed with so much it's useless.  For the first time I'm doing the notecard process, which I'm liking (thought I think I might move to stickies, colored according to POV).  I generally like this process however I do it, because it's more reassuring than not. I plot to this structure naturally, just without quite enough meta-cognition to emphasize the right places.  I AM going to do this ahead for the next book (still title-less) from the start, fo sho.

I totally get the idea of the four act structure (I, like many people, do believe the center of the book is the center of the world.  It's important, and one concentrating on the three act structure sometimes skips over.)  I do group my 2 and 3 acts, though, into 2-1 and 2-2, because I think the middle mega-act needs a lot of continuity.  But concentrating on the center of the book, for me, helps with saggy middle.

 I've just realized that Act 1 does not end on a set piece. The set peice would be when Trinidad kills someone who begins his descent away from the church.  Instead it ends on a reversal.  He's committed to helping Castile find the bad guy from the safety of Away, but the reversal will take him right into the clutches of the suspected Bad Guy.

I think that works, so I can move on. Now I'm fussing with the 3rd sequence. I know the result of how it ends (that confirmation comes early in Sequence 4.) But for the life of me, I can't make all the cards in Sequence 3 line up right.

I guess it should be about pattern and rhythm.  Maybe at the ends of Sequences 1, 3, 5, and 7, Trinidad should experience something that makes him think he knows his path. And then at the end of each act he experiences a reversal? Hmm, that's an interesting thought.

Does anybody know about this stuff?  I wish I had a buddy who could puzzle over my board with me.

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