One of the notes I got back in August was that my main character had to be challenged more. That really struck a chord with me.  Challenged how? How could I accomplish that? Does he mean in a story sense, or character development, or something else entirely?

I had no idea what to do.

Rather than stress myself out, I opted to shut down the analytical part of my brain and just work on the outline.  Which led to the current work on pages.

Then I got to this pivotal sequence near the end of Act One.  The previous version was okay, but needed improvement on several levels.

And that’s when it hit me.

Here was the opportunity to not only challenge my hero, but to emphasize the threat of the bad guys (extra conflict courtesy of a 2nd antagonist added to this sequence) AND to play up the fantastical elements of the story (also advised via the aforementioned script notes).

It was surprising how this was working out.  Something I was anxious and stressing over was becoming easier to do.

The now-revamped sequence definitely changes things, and really sets a tone for what’s ahead and what kind of bad guys our hero has to deal with if he’s to accomplish his goal.

This sort of thing seems to be happening more.  Initial nervousness, followed by calm, analytical thinking, resulting in better-than-expected final product.

But this isn’t the time to rest on my laurels. A main supporting character is about to undergo a major personality adjustment, and that’s going to be even more of an effort.

Can’t wait to see how that works out.