Characters, Plotting & The Interview

So meanwhile, back at the ranch, or rather back at the small town in Vermont where my characters are fighting valiantly to straighten out their conflicts so they make sense, I have been plotting out on index cards each scene I've written. For the most part, I like all the scenes. I'm just not sure they progress the plot fast enough, so there will have to be some blending and building in of new scenes to progress things further and develop the relationship more. Although, I will say, reading through what I have so far helped me see the characters more clearly and I realized a few things about them, and noticed a few things that had to change or be better developed.

The index cards were useful, but I'm translating them onto screen caps now, a modified version that I hope will help me keep the plot and subplots straight. It basically is a table with sections that look like this:

Scene #:
Date / Time / Location:
POV Character:
Scene Summary:
Dash's GMC:
Lucy's GMC:
Romance Plot:
Langston House Plot:
Other Subplots:

I'm hoping if I can keep it mapped out on the scene caps this way, I can easily tell where the gaps show up. Where plots threads get dropped for too long, or how the characters and romance develop. Or don't.

So that's my job for this week. I am also hoping to get 10 new pages written but that might be a bit of a pipe dream given that I also have to ready two chapters for my critique partners by Friday and set an agenda for my chapter meeting on Sunday. We'll see how it goes. My main goal is to straighten out the plot and the characters' GMC.

I had my interview with TV Guide yesterday. Thankfully I managed to procure an empty meeting room to do the interview in over the phone so I didn't have my podmates listening in. The questions related mostly to myth-busting the preconceived notions about what the romance genre is and isn't. Hopefully I managed a few articulate responses and hopefully those will be the ones that show up in print. The interview will air on the TV Guide on-line site on March 8th, same day as the documentary airs. Just ten days and counting!!