More Writing
I'll admit, I was a bit of an insomniac before the concussion. But evidently people (like me) who suffer from post-concussion syndrome turn into night time zombies.
Not fun.
Then I was surfing through youtube this evening and found an old video of Final Fantasy VII - Crisis Core, edited with The Cruxshadows Eye of the Storm overlayed on it. The song was playing practically nonstop when I wrote Vindicator over a year and a half ago, and I stopped for a moment and I think I found out why I've been having so many problems with CC3... I'm just not that into this aspect of Christian's story.
See, I have the story starting out with Christian sparring with Father Hep, the priest whose hobby involves the forge. Hey, cut me some slack... Father Hep sounded a lot better than Father Vulcan. The problem is is that while I see the scene in my head, it's just not coming out so well on the screen. I've rewritten the opening chapter six times now (which equates to about 20,000 words) and it's just not doing it for me. I think it's because I threw off my normal rhythm with this story.
In the beginning of both The Green Jewel and The Midnight Crew, Christian is seen first in the book and the nfollowed closely by Jake, his best friend and right hand man. In The Eternal Dragon, Jake doesn't make his first appearance until the third chapter. Which might be what is throwing me off so greatly.
The first and most obvious solution would be to write Jake into the first chapter. The downside of this is that it kills the scene in chapter 3, when Christian is dishing the info on the weird attackers (the Lamia, or hybrid vampires... you know, vampires who just aren't man (or woman) enough to be real vampires) and wondering why they fled after attacking him so suddenly, as well as what they were really after. This is easily fixable, naturally, by assuming Jake knows all this and this is a routine talk between the boys as they walk to school.
Bear with me, this is actually helping some...
The problem I seem to be having, however, is writing in David, the real target of the Lamia. The Lamia heading towards the horse stables in chapter one makes sense as well, because David's two horses (his family is rich) are stabled there. But when and how do I introduce David? I mean, he's moving to Purgatory Peak (the name of the town, btw) permanently to live with his dad, Gregory Stout. If you've read the first two books, the name might sound familiar to you. David is Matt Denny's younger stepbrother.
The thing is, how do I keep the reader guessing who the real target of the Lamia (and to a lesser extent, Vladmir Tepes) is? Both the Aes Sidhe and the Dubh Sidhe are in a state of armed truce at the moment, though the High Council is enforcing the truce through both magical and non-magical means. This means that as antagonists, the Sidhe are "officially" out of the action. There's always the intrepid Matt Denny, who would make a lovely target now that he is nearly fully possessed by the demon Maighdean Uaine. Or his Billy Idol buddy wannabe whose name I can't remember right now. Both are possessed by the spirit of a glastig, or she-demon, though Matt's is a little more terrifying than the other kids.
Then there's the Minstrel, the mysterious figure who royally kicked Christian's ass in The Midnight Crew. I'm actually torn on this one, because I don't want too much going on, more of a menacing presence... a phantom menace, as it were (thanks George, you tubby bastard). I want Christian to have his thoughts on the shadowy figure, thinking of how easy the evil warlock had wiped him out in their brief battle. So no, probably nothing more than passing mention of the Minstrel in this one. I think Matt Denny and the Crew as a whole are going to come into their own in this one, and become a more permanent thorn in the boy's side.
Which, come to think of it, would probably rachet up the tension at school more, given that Matt Denny's half-brother is going to be allied with his greatest mortal enemy, Christian. Makes for a decent story there... nothing like a little family drama to kill the hopes of a happy family.
Hmm... now to go and write an ending. Hell, this is pretty good for a basis of a plot for now. I'll expand upon it at a later date.