Grindcore

It took me a little while, but I managed to find a solution to the problems faced in the staff meeting scene. Before it goes to publishing I'll probably give it another look so as to comb it a little smoother, but as solutions go ... it isn't bad. The end of that scene posed another problem, which I steamrolled over after about ten minutes of thought. Near the end of the meeting Dana raises an issue that involves a conflict with another part of the hospital. In the original version that's all it was. In the revised factory edition of that scene it was changed to be a conflict with engineering, and to make it work I added Alexis to the stew, which made the whole thing so much better. Thus the problem was how to switch it back to the hospital and retain Alexis's involvement in the issue, because it works so much better with that character in the mix. Again, it might need another look, but a successful solution was navigated.

The chapter ends with a two-part scene in Alyssa and Emma's apartment. I may say this a lot, but this scene is absolutely *crucial* to the Kelly/Alyssa/Emma dynamic that's been brewing since chapter 3. Since it's so crucial, it has to be done just so. The first part of the scene was a piece of cake, at least in the writing of it. A tune up here and there made it pretty smooth, and the addition of one line of dialogue added a new dimension to everything. I like when that happens. What wasn't easy was jumping into the scene. Since the basic structure of this storyline is adapted from real events, I could remember very vividly living through what happens here, and a small knot tightened in my stomach in anticipation of Kelly having to say something to Emma that he'd rather not have to say. I'll get that same knot again in chapter 13, but for much different reasons.

It occurs to me that the staging of the book is a little odd. I mean, story and plotwise it's fine. But the way everything is blocked out into seperate, stand alone scenes, like I'm shooting it for television, just seems weird to me now that I've stopped to think about it. I'm sure I'm not inventing the wheel or doing anything unique in this approach, but in retrospect it really seems an oddball way to go about writing a novel.

This isn't a complaint. I actually like it this way.