The first act of this new installment to The Fable Avenue Saga™ is complete. It clocks in at nine chapters and about 130 pages. Not too bad. A little over budget, but what had to be written was essential. I do wish it could’ve hit at around 100-110 pgs. But that was ideal. Realistically, I knew it would come in at around 120-125. So, 130 isn’t too bad (if I ignore my ideal). There were a lot of changes made. I stuck to the outline, but many happenings and goings-on and tiny details had their presentation reworked. One of the last scenes in the act was supposed to be a big blowup between characters, but I started seeing the confrontation as being too much. So I pulled back and toned it down. It comes off a lot better for both characters.
I’ve also introduced the first scene of my fourth and final epic poem which will be intertwined with the plot. The scene attacks the novel’s main character like a train crash and leaves him tight with emotions. I’ve plotted the course for the remainder of the fourth epic poem, now I have to hit the proper beats within the story’s narrative to put them on display.
I won’t be going directly into the second act. I’m now composing two short stories, in a sense, that will arc the narrative back to London, 1917 and Tanzania, 1883. Two major events, hinted at in The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn will be the center of attention for the next (hopefully) 50 pages. One of those events deals with the question: What happened to Joseph Pepper IV while over in London? And what mythological bauble was he seeking? We will also get to know a young Madison Goodspeed who was constantly talked up in The Ghost of Gabriel’s Horn, and finally presented here.
The second act will have a focus on the story’s female protagonist. She was introduced as a six-year-old girl in the first chapter, but now she’s nineteen and a college student. Much of the fourth epic poem will inhabit the second act, a device used to bring the female protagonist and the male protagonist together. We will see her confront the trauma she witnessed as a young girl, and blossom into a young, bright leader on Fable Avenue. A few villains will step into the story’s narrative within the second act. Unlike Sarinda Fallows, these villains are not cunning, destroying lives indirectly through clandestine means. The first villain to appear, on orders of the two Big Bads is a brutal man. And his followers are worse than him.
There will be no rest for this writer. I’ve already plotted and outlined Joseph Pepper’s London adventure, and the story dealing with the ‘Tanzanian incident’. On the move. Getting things done.
b write black
b write black
