Dispatch From The Quest: Christian Fontenot

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today: Christian confronts a nebulous Act Two:

Trust the process. Trust the process. Trust the process?

On the eve of “Fade In”, I doubt my ability to pull this thing off. Don’t get me wrong; trusting the Quest process, I probably know more about my main characters and theme at this stage of the game than I ever have before. I also have a pretty clear vision of my “tent pole” scenes. I even may have even finally cracked a true unique, narrative tone.

However, connecting all these dots into a Narrative Themeline has been much harder than I ever expected. I have a rock solid outline for Act 1 and Act 3, but Act 2 is still in it’s Jell-O phase and could go in so many different directions, and the unknown of all that is causing an anxiety fueled explosion of great feels. But I can hear Scott’s voice in my head (not that I need another voice in my old coconut)– “let your characters guide the way”.

So come on characters, tell me your stories. Let’s get this going! Time for a walk.

Trust the process? Trust the process. Trust the process!

It’s always Act Two. That’s the bear.

Anyone can write a first act. That’s primarily setting up the story.

Almost anyone can write an ending. The drive to FADE OUT can compel us to pound out those final pages.

But the middle of the story? That’s a challenge. All those scenes. Subplots. How to build and sustain narrative drive? How to handle cross-cutting the action?

Sometimes the middle of the story feels much more like a muddle.

So yes… trust the process. Reach out to your characters. See where they take you. It helps if you have a clear sense of the Protagonist’s metamorphosis as that can help steer the psychological arc of the story.

At some point, give yourself over to page-writing. The first draft is a journey of discovery. Commit to finishing that draft no matter what. Eventually the story will become clear to you.

Good luck, Questers, and everyone else who will be typing FADE IN on Monday.

Go wrangle some magic!

Starting Monday, the last week of Dispatches From The Quest, this to allow the Questers a chance to focus on their writing.

About Christian: From Louisiana, now in Seattle. Turns off street lights with his mind. Regrets not learning the tuba — TUBAS ROCK! Storyteller. @cmfontenot.

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