The lull between basketball games is a good thing, I think.
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Turning to episode six has been an interesting adventure. The overall story arc of the world is currently lying in several threads, the “main” arc is really three chords twining together, but the third one of these is really a bit of a dead-end in that it will play out to its end shortly, then (having served its characters and its story purpose in noble fashion), will fade to black.
When I was jamming this into the novel, it was a side-story that I think had enough interest to carry people along, and that did have some value in fleshing out the story in a deeper fashion, but didn’t really have a full place of its own. It wasn’t absolutely necessary for a reader to get the intent of the work as a whole. I remember thinking I should consider killing it for the greater good. Now, though, I’m beginning to think “Short story” or “Mini-episode.”
Though I retain the right to change my mind, as I sit here this morning just digging into the episode-six stuff, the idea of a mini-episode fits. The plot line feels like it carries its own purpose, and is interesting (to me, and hopefully to readers of the series) because it delves into a prominent, but secondary character much more deeply than I’ve done in the past with this series. If it sat on its own, it might feel better than it does sitting in the midst of all this other stuff going on.
These are the kinds of things I’m enjoying about the process of breaking this thing into pieces that seem to work better. This is what I mean when I say that I think the work breathes better.
Or, well, maybe I’m just making stuff up, you know? Kidding myself. I’m a writer, after all. I make stuff up all the time.