More Stuff Here

My post-it note outline for Cold Blooded is going pretty well. I've been having ideas, filling in blanks, figuring shit out. It's also making me a bit nervous.

There are points at which Des' new human friends find out what he is (a vampire, if you're just joining us). The first (friend A) was a few scenes before the midpoint, and the second (friend B) was at the midpoint. I moved friend A's discovery a little later, to the midpoint. Then what about friend B? Oh, I moved that a quarter of the book earlier to the First Plot Point.

And this concerns me. Like this plot is a precarious Jenga tower and if I move the wrong piece, the whole thing is going to come crashing down. I had briefly considered Friend B not finding out at all, and now I pull this shit? What am I doing?

When Inciting Is Not Exciting

I'm starting to wonder about my inciting incident. Is it the thing I think it is?

I've seen many times that in a murder mystery, the Inciting Incident is when someone dies, or the body is discovered. So that's where I had it.

And then the First Plot Point is when the main character is irreversibly pulled into the adventure.

The thing is, my first murder doesn't really… affect anything? It happens "off screen" and the main characters hear about it via a news alert. It creates a bit of atmospheric tension (just the tiniest bit), and fewer people are going out and buying ice cream.

And then my First Plot Point was where the main character ends up getting involved. He gets in a direct confrontation with this serial killer. And then he discovers a body. Now things are starting to happen. I think. That's where I left off.