poking your words

I'm exhausted right now. Haven't been getting much sleep at night these days. It's too bad - I wish I would get more. This time, I haven't even been staying up late writing. I haven't really done any writing this past few days, maybe week. It's been a while since I've written. I'm back on my laptop now, so I really shouldn't have any excuse.

I think it's easier for me to write something from scratch than it is for me to rewrite something. I've had this rewrite scene looming over my head for a while, and I wasn't sure how to write it without dropping a few pages of worldbuilding and following it up with a scene that only partially relates to the plot. However, I needed to have something to cut up what I was doing, because otherwise it wouldn't be flowing right. I've now got an idea that works to give some importance to the scene, but this idea could actually be implemented a number of ways, and I think I'm going to replace this rewrite scene with this new scene.

Essentially - someone tried to assassinate my main character. He was a friend of her family, and someone she'd known for a long time. He isn't talking, but I think what I'm going to have happen is...he tried to tell someone but another person somehow made it so he can't. I'll have to work on that - what happened, break his jaw? Rip his throat out? These characters can heal an unimaginable amount of damage because they don't die unless they want to, which usually means that extreme things like stabbing them through the heart, poisoning them, etc. can kill them, but this character is trying to stay alive to save his family. I'm not sure how exactly to make this work. It has to be something dramatic that can be seen as an accident - "Oops, I didn't know he was about to talk...I was moving too fast to stop myself..." It has to be able to shut the character up for enough time for more threats to be whispered in his ear.

Why are they trying to get him to talk while simultaneously trying to get him to keep quiet? The person who kidnapped his family and forced him to try to assassinate my MC is actually someone who works in the castle and has enough power to get in on the torture sessions.

I was going to have Vayira go to a council meeting that would cover certain issues in the country - and would show the various tensions between the characters - but I think that the scene doesn't do enough; I'd need it to do more, and it would be very diffiicult to bring up the attempted assassin when they're supposed to be discussing other things. I'd have a window of opportunity that would stretch after the worldbuilding and before the council meeting started.

However, if I make a scene out of the dinner/lounging around that comes before, then I can do it. The important chars will all be running around trying to deal with what's going on with the attempted assassin, Vayira will be on edge and nervous and trying to figure out what's going on while flittering amongst the council members, Tai will be there to offer perspective and we'll get to flesh out his character a bit by seeing how he does in front of a large group of very important strangers...

So, yes. I also think that scene will be a lot more fun, because it's easier to stay in Vayira's head when she's at the centre of the game. It's harder when she's sort of watching what other people are doing, only partially participating because she's mostly supposed to be there in training for when she becomes queen. I also don't want to take her away from Tai just yet. I think that that has to be done very carefully or it will undermind what I'm trying to do with the two of them.

So, all in all, scene change idea is a good idea. Imma go work on it now, if I don't fall asleep first. However, before that - dishes. I needs must do them. That's what happens when you cook; you end up with dishes =)