Soooo, we've got to that hilarious third act section of book 10 where I keep getting these fantastic ideas about stuff I absolutely have to include, only that means I would have to rejig the entire end third of the plot to fit in this, by now, irresistible idea. So, spent considerable time faffing about with my chapter plan today, in the manner of someone performing open heart surgery with a lump hammer. I do use a chapter plan, always have done. Pacing and judging the correct geometry of the plot arc would be difficult for me otherwise, although I know many writers don't pre-plan to the same extent (or possibly at all in some cases — some people can apparently "just write", lucky beggars). During the course of my tinkering today the plot looked dangerously close to ballooning out of control, but I was able to rein it in by the end of the pitstop and get it back on the road with only a minor weight gain. I'm trying very hard not to have the length of the last SOTA book go crazy  — some stuff that I'd ordinarily show in detail is going to have to happen offscreen or the book will become a trilogy of its own (1).

So, aside from finishing one chapter and starting another (just past the 2/3 mark on the first draft now), and also writing about 1,000 words on Super Secret Unpublishable Project Force (2) I went to see Cabin in the Woods, a film that has been Wowed beyond Wow by reviews that are maddeningly unable to talk about the Wow without spoiling the film for you. So, yes, Wow. And I myself am now not going to spoil the Wow, save to say that, as I am not a habitual horror moviegoer, the stuff that scared the bejeezled crap out of me probably wasn't actually all that, on a scale of one to Cannibal Holocaust. The ideas and the thought behind the film, as well as the crazygonuts fantastic third act, make it a definite must see if you've got the nerve though.

Although… and this is a weirdness… I wrote part of that film in a weird and totally non-litigious way. Not actually the part that is the point of why the film is so very interesting, but there is a point where Cabin runs on parallel tracks for just a tiny bit with my own story The Dissipation Club, which I had out in Miskatonic River's Dead But Dreaming 2. So, great minds, y'know (4).

(1) Tad Williams and GRRM have both produced (very good) volumes long enough that they had to be split up for the paperback release. I am waiting for some wit to write something so long that the ppb is in itself a trilogy. That will mark some sort of Mayan Apocalypse of fantasy novel memes, I think.

(2) It's like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers except nobody cares (3)

(3) Sorry, it's like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers except even fewer people care.

(4) Please don't sue, Joss.