Day Two

I've gotten a pretty late start today. I have certain days where I find it very hard to motivate myself. After all, with nobody looking over my shoulder constantly and checking up to make sure I'm doing my work, it won't get done until I force myself to do it. (Don't get me wrong - I don't miss having a boss looking over my shoulder in the least.) It's pretty easy to get off track: you're surfing the web and the next thing you know, it's halfway through the day. Plus, I'm trying to fit in these extra workouts for the bet this month, so that's sucking up more time. I'm going to really have to work on my time-management skills.

So at this point in the day, if I've wasted this much time, I'll usually just give up. Instead, today I've made myself turn on the laptop and open a document. I'm going to fiddle with "Fire Child" some. (It helps that my hubby has to mow the lawn when he gets in, so I won't be starting dinner until a bit later, thus giving me some extra time to use to make up for what I've wasted.) I still have a bit to go until it's finished and I have a ton of editing to do.

The main issue I'm having with this story is the pacing. Pacing has always been my achilles heel. I have the hook, a bit of backstory mentioned throughout, and then the rising action peaks pretty quickly (since it is a short story), and then there's a ton of falling action and it drags out a bit. I feel that the climactic point of the story happens early (it begins on page 4, and I have 16 pages total). I suppose I'll just have to fiddle with the structure a bit. Perhaps it is, after all, only rising action, and I'm mistaking the climactic moment. Or perhaps the whole thing will be a drag. Maybe I'll have to just summarize the whole last five pages.

I am thinking about adding one more action scene, bringing the number of action scenes to a total of two. Do you really need two action scenes in a short story? No, probably not. This thing is turning into a novella. I do want to write a scene where, during the protagonist's flight from her home, she and her family are attacked by Rebels who are attempting to round up the gentry. However, I feel that, while it may be exciting, it won't be necessary to the plot and will just bog it down even further.

I am having this same pacing problem with my novel. One of the biggest defining events in the novel happens in part two (out of three parts). This is because I don't want my entire novel to consist of the protagonist's spring idyll and then subsequent journey, ending with her rescuing the Princess from her dreams. Consequently, there's quite a bit of falling action. I have managed to circumvent some of this by building up action concerning the Yalu in part two, during the main characters' absences. This will all culminate at the end of the novel, when the town is attacked during the Midsummer Festival, and Robin must save her brother's life.
 
Alright, short story is now at 10,835 words I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. I'll just keep plugging along at this until I reach some semblance of an ending!