Today was the annual retreat for the Evil Day Job. This meant essentially a 6 or 7 hour staff meeting at an environmental center on the river and no internet access. In honor of my computerlessness (this is the one day a year that I wish I had a data plan on my Blackjack), Pot and I decided to work on character interviews, so I sent her a bunch of questions for her hero, and she sent me all the Act 2 interview questions for my hero and heroine. I made it through 12 of the 13 and wound up with 8 full pages of notes on my legal pad. It was far more entertaining than listening to the endless debate about the company website and our lack of a PR person.
I’ve been on this kick lately of thinking of things right as I am falling asleep, and I’ve been getting up, writing them down (usually in an email to Pot), and then going to lay back down. This often happens a couple of times before I can go to sleep. Seriously, I need to start keeping a notebook by the bed. The good news is that I have had some really helpful ideas that are helping me out for Act 2, which is always a struggle for me. So yay for that.
I’m really happy with the results of these character interviews. And Pot made some big breakthroughs today in her stuff. I am hoping to sit down in a week or two and actually write out a formalized outline. I should be getting to Act 3 interviews by next week. And that’s going to be the bulk of my plot. So I’ll get my outline done, finish my interviews, and then hopefully, as I wind all that up, I’ll finish nailing down the last of my class stuff and be ready to hit the ground running with actual writing.