Syndrome Update

I laid down quite a bit on the current draft of Syndrome this weekend. Actually, I’m quite pleased with the progress. I’m at page 110 right now, and am in the final stages of the story, which should take another 20-30 pages to finish.

I’ve been very happy with my progress as a writer on this project which has been a bit of a transition project for me. It’s the first project where I’m dealing with some disturbing issues and scenes, which aren’t easy to write, since you have to let go of your natural instinct to hold back. If stopped and started over two scenes specifically where I knew I was holding back, and not putting down what the character would really do because I thought it was taboo or over the line. The fact is, it isn’t because they what the character would do, anything else isn’t telling the truth.

I’ve got the final several scenes in my head and ready to go, with a pretty clear direction the dialogue and cycle of events. There are two twists at the end which should be pretty satisfying. Actually, I’m pretty sure one of them is spot on, the other one I’m not so sure on, but will do and see how it works. Fortunately, the second one is arbitrary and not integral to the story, so if it doesn’t work it can be easily removed.

After this draft the challenge will be speeding up the first and middle act. The third act, what I’m finishing now, has been spot after spot, and I think has a fluid and natural pace to it. The first two acts were tough for me as I had to establish a slew of characters which will all be revisited in the third act as an ensemble. It sort of rambles on in places and seems unsure of itself. Some pacing and quicker development should address these issues since the story behind the events is solid, it’s just the manner that I chose to tell them in that needs tweaking.

-Steve