Duh revelation epiphany "here's your sign."
I've been blocked on my novel's ending for a long time now. September, October, November?
First it was what to do instead. There had to be something better. I free associated, brainstormed, considered feelings, the reader's experience, character, theme, symbols, images, and ... nothing.
I wondered for -- a few days? -- how the villain could push harder, but he's incarcerated at this point in the story, so I'd have to get him out. How and why? Invent a mom? No, if I didn't establish her before now, she can't come out until the sequel.
Then I finally figured out how it was that I could really make what I had better: tie it back to the begining. Less episodic, more of a spine for that great finished feeling that satasfying reads give the reader. Don't just consider rising action and theme, and don't start an entirely new sequence. Have it hearken back to the first chapter, or first three. Use my resources.
Today I read one of my books on plot, the one with a lot of "master plots." My novel is mostly an adventure. He used a fairy tale -Grimm brothers, not Andrew Lang-as an example and the classic structure hit me over the head. Of course. I should have known this just from the Hero Journey archetypes. Everyone our heroine meets in the first third, now figure prominently in the last quarter, the climax. She won her allies, now she makes use of them.
I sort of knew that, but I had the emphasis wrong. I was thinking they'd simply be victimized, someone for the reader to sympathize with, and no, that's too passive. This is an adventure story! Into the fray, damnit!
Yes there is city unrest, and yes our supporting characters, their buildings could come under attack, but that shouldn't be the only thing going on at that point of the buildup to the climax (which does have meaning and layers). Maybe 007 can get away with major plot points that are empty of anything but 'will he survive?,' but I can't.
The buildup to the climax was missing layers. It's a fine complication, friends under attack, but not a caper or delimna (sp?). And my heroine should not be reacting to something at her most defining moment. She should be the architect, commander, XO, project manager of the situation! Duh! Her personality/nature is leader.
I mean, would you want Luke to just accidently stumble upon Darth Vadar right before the "I'm your father" reveal? Wouldn't that reduce the moment? Isn't it so much better that Luke had to forcibly argue with Obiwan and Yoda and leave his training just to get there? He made an active choice. An active choice is more defining than a reaction/response.
So I'm getting rid of an all-too convenient riot and now my heroine is causing it -- with a little help from her friends, the ones I established in the beginning. Whew! That's much more of an adventure!
But I still have to run it through the logic filter. And character checklist. Still things left to figure out and decide. Whew.
Ooh, I should not reveal the plan, just the tasks, so everything she does becomes a read-on prompt... scene question... whatever the term is heh.