Writing the Western Update IV: I’ve Been a Bad Blogger

I have a confession to make: I did some writing on September 23rd and didn't tell you about it.

I'm terribly sorry. I hope you all can forgive me.

It was only one scene, but it was an important one. We got to meet our main villain, and a couple of his cronies. They all fit neatly into a Five-Bad Band[ref] Villains, like heroes, often travel in groups of five, as in the Power Rangers. Heroes also come in other flavors, such as the Power Trio.[/ref] Each member of the band has his job to do:

The Big Bad- The main villain of the story, although towards the end we'll discover he isn't quite the biggest bad of all...

The Dragon- Is the Big Bad's second in command. Often does a lot of the dirty work.

The Evil Genius- One thing I'm having fun with in this story is the language barriers between characters, even among the villains. He translates.

The Brute- The muscle. Often not the sharpest tool in the shed, but here, he just needs a translator (see above).

The Dark Chick- Who, in our setting, is a dude. Sorry, that's just the way it's gotta be. It'll make sense when you read it.

All links courtesy of TVTropes.org. If you don't understand the lingo, seriously, get cracking. It's not going to stop.

I also wrote another scene today. This introduced several other supporting characters, and a plot coupon that'll pay off in a few scenes. I think we're through most of the heavy exposition at this point, which is good. There is one more major character to introduce, but we won't get to him for a while.

To be honest, though, I'm not completely happy with what I have so far. I think the overall story is moving in the right direction, but there's something about the tone and pacing that feels off. Hmm. It's a good thing this is a first draft.

There's probably many reasons for this. It's the first draft, the structure may need tightening, the characters might need to be better defined, I haven't gotten into a good rhythm of writing every day, I'm too close to the material to be objective, etc...

I'd try to fix things now, except I'd probably never finish. It'll be easier once I have a full draft I can tear to pieces. Hopefully things will get better as we go along. There's lots of scenes coming up that I'm really looking forward to...