I wanna cuss. A lot. I try actively not to cuss, so this is a problem.

I’m gonna sort through my big issue here. I’ve been broiling, stewing over it for 5 days. Wasting time.

Okay so there are different elements I need to make sure are in my story. And looking at it, I have a plot for everyone, I’m following a plan. But I don’t have crucibles for everyone. I have one for Sara. But the other 2 main characters honestly need them too. Places of transformation.

If I had all three of them together I could maybe get away with not having  3 crucibles. But I only have two of them together. Really if I’m going to have three main characters I must have three crucibles. And this is what I’ve been missing all along. I know it.

Trystan is doing fine at this point in my story, peachy in fact. He has what he wants. All is right in his world. Well, he has learned that having his lute literally makes him responsible to hold the world together and keep it from being destroyed by psychotic maniacs.

I guess that might be a crucible. I can explore that.

Darn you, evil, horrible story. I was quite happy with my selfish, shallow Bard. I was okay with his silliness, his comic relief, his lighter role. I gotta go back and fix him now. It’s not ok, it really isn’t. And my long-suffering editor is going to yell at me again. No one tell her I’m editing as I go. I mean it.

I guess for Trystan, I gotta have a secret too. Secrets seem to me to be the easiest crucible to use. The lute is a secret. He’s being chased by people that want to use him, maybe blackmail him. They don’t know he has the lute but he has disappeared and it’s suspicious. So they’re likely going to play their hand.

While I’m at it, my bad guys need a few scenes too. I’ve just sort of let them stay off-stage. When they are on-stage then they walk on, act all freaky and evil for a scene, then leave. I have backstory, I just don’t like writing them. They make me feel icky. I had the same issue with hurting my main characters too, before I started. (See? I’m completely ridiculous.) I got over it but have yet to get over the villain thing. I just hate going there.

“Why?” you ask.

It’s definitely not a happy thing for me, to plumb into the ugly depths of the human spirit. I doubt that it is easy for anyone. If it is, I wonder why. I have met real evil. I myself have been wounded, foolish, thoughtless, callous and absolutely worthy of the label myself. A lot. Even writing a distantly related sketch of it makes me physically ill. It’s likely why I hide behind the couch during Supernatural and Dr Who. 

But it’s probably healthy too, to write through these things. Might be a crucible for me.

What is that quote about bleeding on the page?

Bleah. Get over yourself, woman.

Okay, I think I have it sorted.

In case you’re wondering why I use the term crucible, you can go look it up. Literary alchemy, just google it.