Trying to unblock

I actually wrote something this evening.

See, there is a section I’d skipped ahead to writing. I think of it as the hinge of the story—it’s the point where everything changes as three revelations pile in on top of each other.

Except … I’m not sure I’ve got them in the right order. The first is fixed, but hot on its heels come two pieces of news from half way across the continent. One is a political situation spiralling towards civil war—it shouldn’t have an impact on the protagonist, half a continent away and in a very different country, but by the end of the story it most profoundly will have done so. The other, the bearer of the news doesn’t initially believe—half-forgotten monsters from the past have returned to stalk the land. This is something which could end up having the kind of impact on the continent of the black death hitting Europe. It’s also going to have an impact on the protagonist—he already knows this has happened, and has been enjoined to secrecy—but within the arc of this story it’s a rather incidental one. It’s more of a set up for what I know happens afterwards.

Originally, I wrote the delivery of these two pieces the other way round. And I’ve just realised that the result is “OMG, it’s the end of the world! And to make things worse, this distant country is about to break out in a civil war which won’t touch us!” I’m not sure I could write a finer example of bathos if I tried. Plus which, it over-telegraphs which is the more important to the story. So I’ve just rewritten it the other way round. I think the result is more natural, and improves the story telling. Although I’m willing to be told otherwise. And, while it was largely a pile of cut-and-paste, it means I’m writing again.