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Thursday, 1/30/25. I put those scene checkmarks / suggestions on the entry photo to this blog so that you may copy down the list, if you like. I’ve read a number of books and articles and this list is inclusive, though it’s also bordering on exhaustive. Try it out. Then, tell me what you think (put your comments below on the bottom of the blog entry page.

I wrote on Wednesday. Just didn’t get to blogging. I pondered over whether I should take selections from the 1^st draft, dump them into the 2^nd draft, and adapt them until they fit. I decided doing so wouldn’t work. Some of the scenes are in POVs other than Kelsey’s (the protagonist’s) POV. 2^nd draft: no multiple POVs for me. Done with that. Also, I wrote the first draft in past tense. Probably a big mistake. I don’t know what I was thinking. Most of the young adult thrillers that I’ve read are in present continuing tense. I went back and forth about it for a while. Then I looked at a novel I really enjoyed a year or so ago.  The writer is Ashley Elston. Her book is called This Is Our Story. So much of what I want to do in my novel, she has done very well in hers. So I looked at the point of view and how she handled it. Sure enough, present tense. I realized I’ll just have to rewrite it. No other choice.

              So I started typing away. I knew that this will not be the last draft I do of this book. On the other hand, I was putting in a lot of things that I have neglected in years of writing scenes. or instance, my guide that I created on the Excel spreadsheet says that I am to offer exposition at the beginning of the scene. I usually just let that happen naturally, meaning that it doesn’t happen at all, but I’ll fix it later.  This time, however, I was aware of what I was doing and put in the necessary exposition. I built tension as the scene progressed. First, I showed Kelsey’s confusion over why the school newspaper appeared to be $250 short. Then I tried to create the sudden shock a family would feel if one’s teacher was found dead in the woods. I wrapped up Wednesday with Kelsey and her mother glued to the TV as they both learned about the death.

              So, Thursday’s work was to describe the various reactions of Kelsey and her family to this tragedy. I thought that would be easy. An hour’s work at most. It didn’t go that way. It took 4 hours to write. I did like what I had written, though. I showed Kelsey’s dad to be someone with a tender heart, and yet he was able to take control of the situation at his home and restore a sense of normalcy. Dad also used a lot of profanity. At this beginning of the book, Kelsey is just like her mother. Neither swear. But, the further we get into the book, the more we see that Kelsey slowly learns how to use obscene oaths.  

I ended the scene with Kelsey lying on the living room sofa, her world crashing around her, her eyes locked on the ceiling fan above her. I need to begin the scene with her looking at the ceiling fan in her bedroom.