The time has come to start winding down the book. That was my first thought when I started plotting where to go with this chapter. Bad terminology. Winding down is the last thing you want to do with any story. No, even though we have arrived at the final phase of Ehlsewhere, I still need to keep the tension and expectations building. In fact, what I really want is to turn up the heat, throw some accelerant on the fire, so that this story, which in many ways has been a slow burn up to this point, becomes an edge of your seat page-turner. So, that’s the goal, and I already have the ‘fuel’ in place to make it happen; chiefly that Chahrity’s is in grave danger. All that remains is to see if the mechanics of how I write it can get the job done. So, let’s go see if we’ve got some flame or just a smoky mess.
On a scale of one to ten, with respect to the main goal, I’d call that a seven. I’m happy with the scene, though a little surprised that the entire chapter ended up being one long running scene. That doesn’t happen very often, but I don’t think it was a problem here. I do think it tended to drag in spots; I’ll definitely try to rework the trip through the sewers. It needs to be both more intense and less drawn out. On the positive side, there are two main reasons I liked the chapter; first, the ‘conflict’ aspect is already high, and building, because there is zero doubt that Fingers is intent on killing Chahrity. Secondly, the chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Cliffhangers can be annoying at times, especially if they’re ‘manufactured’, but when they naturally show up as the story unfolds–and as I believe happened here, they are definitely the type of accelerant I’m looking for. My hope is there are more and more of them coming as the book reaches its climax.
My the joy of the Lord light your life today and everyday,
Mike
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