Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

Plugging along in the story, comes to the point where the heroine joins forces with another wizard.

Wait a minute, why would the other wizard do that? How does she know what she needs to know to motivate her to do that?

That was an interesting piece of dialog. Hmm -- perhaps I need to play up two other characters. I didn't say she knew them, but I could say it.

So there's the scene serving vital plot purposes --

The heroine lacks adequate motivation for it. Or, more bluntly, the heroine would be greatly averse to doing what the scene requires. Not to mention the other characters needed motives. . . which were fortunately easier to provide.

Not to mention that the heroine has to make clear the problem, or they'll never be able to talk her into it. Good thing her motives are somewhat simpler there.

The fun part is that it contains the original inspiration for the whole book. Which may or may not be suitable for retention.

I know perfectly well why the hero lets the youngsters come with him as he leaves the house.  Indeed it's overdetermined.  He does not want to keep them prisoner -- in the final analysis, he may feel the temptation before realizing that he was kept prisoner once and does not want to do the same, and besides, it would make them unhappy.  Also frighten them.  He may even overestimate how terrifying it is.  At that, he knows he probably could not, when push comes to shove, actually keep them prisoner, and he probably underestimates how 

The problem is that he probably will have to offer some explanation why he, a mysterious man who shows up and does odd jobs and vanishes, is now showing up with six youngsters in tow.  All of them old enough to be apprentices or servants, and as mysterious as he is, they would think there was some reason.  Worse, they may gossip about him, and that might get back to people whom he really does not want to hear about him.  And that can happen even if he holds his tongue, so mere silence is not an option.

Hmm. . . he may intimidate that they would not like to be known as people who were visited by the youngsters.  Hmmmmmmm.

Two characters talk -- mostly, one talks, one listens. Info-dumping occurs, even though the listener needs and wants to know.

To spice it up, the talker now doesn't want to talk. The listener must coax the talk out. Which means, which means -- the listener has to convince the talker that the information will convince the listener that it's as hopeless as the talker thinks it is.

Was moving around pieces of a story like a toddler moving around building blocks, and thinking of this character as the potential villainess, living in the woods and working magic, except that she did not really seem like the villainess in doing certain acts. . . .

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Wrapping up the tale in the denouement. The easiest thing to revise usually. . . .

The marrying and the burying, as Twain put it, although in this tale, it's the marrying after the disenchanting -- some characters finally have the spells on them broken.

And I'm revising along and realized that I had characters discussing something that was hidden by an enchantment without actually learning it. . . another character could now tell them because the spell had been broken, but it won't spontaneously be known by any other character.

sigh. The things you miss in the first draft.

The details of the plot determine the finer details of the theme.

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Two heroes talk. About justice, prudence, judgment, the limits of human knowledge.

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Have two heroes debating justice.

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The heroine knows, of course, that the prince and oldest son talking about how the king set him and his brothers to finding brides is in the Frog Princess.

The trick is that it takes time for her to think about it, and the prince is speaking briskly, and doesn't have too much to say. She can't stand there and think all day.

And the Frog Princess is not one of those tales that everyone knows and will recognize with an allusion.

sigh