We got into the meeting room early today, yay. Three of us were there at the start, with two slightly late arrivals and one arriving halfway through. Using my amazing math skills, we had a turnout of six.
I came in with no specific plan of action, only knowing I would be fixing more things in Road Closed. Somehow I managed to fix one of the last big remaining lumps in the carpet I’d created. The one vexing me this week was the spooky room in the old house that Christian visits twice for house parties, the first time alone (and drunk), the second with Kevin (and sober).
Initially, I had him discover a room that appeared to be a study, complete with very old Remington typewriter sitting on the desk. He hears or thinks he hears a voice telling him to leave. Spooky.
On the second visit, he meets Brandon, the son of the owners of the house. Brandon tells him the room is Grandpa’s study and Grandpa died a long time ago. The room has been sealed as a kind of memorial. He agrees to unlock it so Christian and Kevin can have a look but refuses to go in himself. Still spooky but it didn’t feel right.
I pondered and then it came to me rather obviously–I had to ditch both Grandpa and the study. Instead, the room becomes a bedroom, one occupied twenty years earlier by Brandon’s aunt–his mother’s sister. Christian doesn’t know it at the time, of course, but he has literally come across Wendy Kerr’s residence and effectively gets her spirit attached to him by entering the room. The proverbial ghost magnet, just as he laments later on in the story. Perfect.
The next lump in the carpet is what to do with Miller Woods. Right now I have it as the place where Wendy was buried and where Simon meets his end. Is there more to it than that? Early parts of the story suggest it has some significance but now I’m not so sure.
Once I resolve the Miller Woods dilemma (MWD) I will have smoothed out everything that seriously bothers me in the first draft and can jump back into finishing the first draft proper. I am cautiously optimistic.
