Day 65 - New Words

It was a good day. I really didn't spend that much time writing, but I got quite a bit done.

Today's Progress: 1700+ new words on In Flight.

I wrote a new scene -- or actually the second half of an existing scene.  Reef decides to take pictures of the damage done by the break in, and discovers something interesting about what is missing.  This lead to a couple of other bits of scene I had to do to account for the new information, which led to another scene of dealing with old tech in the archive library.

(For the young, a horror story: once upon a time, if you wanted to do a search on a term, you had to scan all the text with your own eyes.  No computer to look for it or highlight it for you.)

Reading and Watching.

In the meantime, I'm still mostly reading right now. It really does help make my mind more verbal, and scenes really do flow out more smoothly.  

Right now I'm reading the very first Nathan Shapiro story by Frances and Richard Lockridge: The Faceless Adversary.   This one is available at the Open Library (The Faceless Adversary) to borrow as an ebook or to read on line, and it's a pretty good one to start with. The voice of the story is less arch, more accessible to modern audiences. The protagonist in jeopardy is a banker whose life is going perfectly, until someone frames him for murder.  The frame is elaborate and deep and so convincing that the protagonist himself starts to have doubts.  But his fiance has no doubts, and together they try to figure this thing out.

It starts a little slow as the hero is stunned and helpless, watching the cops pile up evidence before him, but that's like so many really gripping suspense stories: the tension builds.

Interestingly -- while the Lockridges are considered pretty cozy today, and even in their day they were never considered hard boiled -- this book and others followed the pattern of many classic noir movie -- before Noir became nihilist crime drama.

I also spent some time watching Mannix, and thinking about twists on tropes.  Happened to notice a particular trope common to not only episodes of that show, but of lots of crime shows: start the show with a person running, while baddies chase.  Runner is killed, queue the theme music....

It happened that I have seen two shows in a row where the runner was a panting old fat guy, who was far outclassed in the chase department.  You were prepared for him to drop dead of a heart attack.  And I though, okay, what about an opening scene where the panting old fat guy catches up with the over-confident young runner, and kills him?  Kind of a crime show Tortoise and the Hare?

Gotta get up early tomorrow, so I guess I better hit the hay. (Although I really do want to finish the Faceless Adversary.  Who needs sleep?)

See you in the funny papers.