Detective Story – Week Three

I got back to work on my detective story this week. I have been working on it for three weeks now. When I did “The Anger Trap” I had a first draft done in three weeks, but I’m not that far along on this one. I think I will get a better script this time though.

I have been working mostly on a detailed outline. I want to focus on the main plot. When I was trying to write an earlier script, “The Caregiver” I got lost when I started adding subplots before the main plot was really fully developed.

The out line now runs to 7,652 words after I wrote 4,842 words this week. When I wrote “The Anger Trap” my outline ended up at 12,679 words. If I was using the same approach I would about 60% done, but I’m doing things differently and I expect the outline to end up longer than that.

In “The Anger Trap” outline I only described what was happening and a little about what the characters were thinking. This time I am starting by writing down what each character in the scene wants before I start on detailing what happens. I have done that for most of the scenes. I should have that done in another day or so.

By doing it this way, I realized that some scenes might not have much to contribute. I deleted a couple of scenes and added a couple to replace them.  There are still some weak scenes, but maybe I can develop them more as I work on them.

My characters are developing. My protagonist, Lucas Martin, is turning out to be a private person. I think he has something to hide. That makes it harder to get to know him, but it is an important factor in what he ends up doing.

Some interesting contrasts have shown up between Lucas’ personality and his partner Mike Johnson. Mike is a more open person and maybe even a little irresponsible at times. While there is a potential for conflict between the two, I see the differences as a source of strength for them as a team.