Short and Simple, But Not Really

Day 6 of the Writing Marathon
Weekend, but that doesn't say much. Part of working from home means that I am the designated parent who then also takes care of the chores around the house. And now that Nancy is gone for the week, parenting as well. It's not as bad as it may sound, I mean, I do like it. But it does take away from the single-minded 'I gotta write like Stephen King, which means every day and every frakkin' minute' method.

So I didn't do too much today:

• 8:30 until 8:00 (yes, most of the day) Played Lego with Alex, watched TV with Alex, wrestled with Alex, drew cartoons with Alex (at least something publishable came out of that), made meals for Alex, put Alex to bed. That's a lot of lovin' invested in one little boy, but he's totally worth it. I love him to bits.
• 11:15 So I only wrote for 3 hours. Big deal. It was passionate, involved and hopefully it adds a whole lot of depth to the characters, who up until now have been pulled along by the plot. I figured out, some time ago (and before reading Vogler/McKenna's Memo From The Story Dept. I am proud to say), that a good story has three elements, which need to be balanced well. The better you balance those elements, the more satisfying it then becomes for a reader.
  
  Simon essentially gets to vent all of his anger, frustration and sorrow after having his father involved in an accident, his sister kidnapped and himself thrust into a magical world, which is taxing the very limit of his sanity and understanding. One of the complaints Nancy (my editor and lovely wife) had was that there was too much weird terminology being used and eventually it all felt like a summation of bullet points rather than a well flowing narrative. Even though I'm snipping away some of the terminology, there is still a lot that Simon (and thus the reader) gets hit with in the first 8 chapters. So I've used chapter 9 as not only a show of frustration by Simon  for the unknown (which the reader might also feel at this point), I also use that as a way of getting the assisting characters to explain a lot and get that out of the way, so we can move on with the story.
  
  To put it terms of my own Story Trifecta:
  
  
  Plot (events) pushes Character (actors) to emote, thus releasing Mythology (or place) facts.
  
   All three have been affecting and activating each other in a balancing act that hopefully satisfies and engages the audience. (By the way, you may notice my take on successful classics: Star Wars & Lord of the Rings are heavy on Mythology, ET was loaded with Plot or Event and Twilight is all Character. Harry Potter is in my opinion the one (and most successful) series that comes close to perfection, because although heavy on the Plot, it manages to convey enough Character and Mythology to grab a larger audience demographic. I hope to up the ante.)
• Midnight. I've outdone myself (if in persistence and time alone). I'm off to snooze land.

Goedenacht en tot morgen!