More revision insights

I'm starting to trust my subconscious mind more--when I write everything out and let things percolate in my mind, things have a habit of sorting themselves out as I'm falling asleep. (The trick is remembering all the answers in the morning, of course.) Last night I realized that since switching out secondary characters, not only have the reasons for my MC's actions become more compelling, but one of the basic nodes of the book is clearer. There are basic, top-level turning points in any novel. Yes, the whole inciting incident-rising action-climax thing, but there are also points specific to each novel that have to come together so that those things can even happen. When your character makes a choice, s/he opens up the way for more possibilities, and a few of these choices become major turning points in your plot. I knew what I wanted to happen at the end, but I wasn't sure how my character was going to make it inevitable. But now I think I know. I knew the first turning point, and revised to point everything that direction, and now that I know the second one, I know how to align the middle of the book. That leads to the climax, and then I'm done! (Although there is still one niggling plot point that hasn't sorted itself out yet. Maybe it's time for another nap? *says hopefully*)

boys

Oldest son is off on a scout campout. It is a nice, if small, group of boys. I think he'll have fun.

Now Second Son is in the alpha position. He likes this. He becomes very talkative when he's the oldest boy around. Anything from wanting to build a particle accelerator in the garage to quotes from The Stinky Cheese Man, which he just discovered. He also just shared this bit of wisdom with me: "Some movies have 'adult situations,' like paying taxes, paying bills...stuff like that. I don't know how those movies make any money."

I don't have any brothers, so I find my boys quite foreign and entertaining.