I had a good weekend last weekend, with just over 6000 words, and I start this weekend at 47,000-plus. Yet I'm increasingly worried about my deadline. If I average 5000 words per weekend from now til Thanksgiving, That will only bring me to 78,000. What I really need to do is average 7000 per week -- nearly impossible without working a four-day week at my job. So perhaps what I'll have to do is "work at home" one day a week.

And it would be a good idea to start that on Monday, since Cris has delayed her return from vacation by a day and will not be returning until late Monday night.

All right, what am I going to do today? The book is completely out of my mind. I should have prepared by catching up on it yesterday, but I spent the whole evening doing laundry and listening to the ball game. I'll have to catch up now. This is an example of how I still am inefficient when it comes to use of my time.

It occurs to me that I still don't have an outline, and that it would be good at this point to put one together to allow me to see where I am.

 
Still sort of at a loss -- and yet I have the feeling I need to move the plot, such as it is, along much more. The part in bold dark red in 7e is where the main arena for conflict of the book is mentioned for the first time. -- aside from the source of Hap's anxiety, i.e. whether or not he gets to keep his apartment. In addition to sex, I have to keep in mind to have lots of scenes with the whole business plot moving forward.

 
1:18 pm-- Man, I'm not focusing. I'll take a tiny walk and then come back and read a little.

 
3:36 pm-- I went and did an errand, coming back an hour later. Now I've spent more than an hour reading. No closer to knowing anything about what it is I have to write today; I only know that I'd better get revved up and do it. I would have done better to go to a film early today than to do what I have done, which is worse than nothing.

All right, I'll concentrate. It's quite simple, really. I must explicate the plot machinations between the characters while doling out generous amounts of smut. The plot machinations themselves I have not really planned out, because they don't matter much. Nevertheless, I'll have to have some idea where they're going.

I seem to remember I had mapped something out several weeks ago. Let me see if I can find it...
  1. Don explains idea for company. Hap considers the attractiveness of going to work for Don -- the pluses and minuses.
  2. Don wants Denny's money. Denny considers investing in Don's company versus doing the something else.
  3. Denny indirectly encourages Hap to think there's an alternative to going to work for Don. (Problems here -- why shouldn't he go to work for Don anyway? What's stopping him? Must make it some kind of moral objection.)
  4. Hap has to decide, and he finally decides to go with Denny.
  5. But then Denny decides to go ahead and invest his money with Don anyway.
And:
Make it clearer that the apartment represents freedom for Hap. Keep that word in mind. Contrast it to the period when he owned a house with his wife Kara. He rents now but is freer.


And finally, I have never addressed this:
Perhaps the subplot does have to do with Denny's own internal struggle -- his motivations for competing with Don, for coming up with an alternative, for inveigling Hap. Something to do with the way his yearning for redemption competes with his weaknesses.
My sense is that the other subplot has to have something to do with Seth, who has not come to the fore at all yet.

Oh... Hmm, I said last weekend that the subplot had to have something to do with Bart and the wi-fi for all thing, and should be comic.

Okay, I have an idea. I'll open the action on the day following 8a with a scene between Don and Bart that Hap overhears. After a few moments he becomes uneasy and manages to get away without them knowing he has overheard them. Then he finds Bianca and exchanges a few more words with her. Finally, he joins Greg in replacing the outhouse on its foundation; this gives us an opportunity to hear another sex story from him.

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