Day 5 is Calling!

Last night I hit 10k, and the plot is picking up quite well now. During the editing process, I'll probably end up adding some conflict in the first few chapters, but for the most part, the story seems to have progressed well. Trey's grief over his wife and son's death is clearly exposed, he and the others on are Sicilian soil (bivouacking on top of a trampled vinyard, to be specific), tension between him and Sheila is established as of last night's work, and today the 12th Field Hospital will receive its first casualties. I'm excited to get started today, though I share Trey's anxiety--today his skills will be tested the highest they've ever been.

Despite all the plotting that I did beforehand, this has been a journey of discovery. Sometime during the past couple days, I found out that Aaron, Sheila's fiancé, was planning to be a doctor before his untimely death. That sheds some light on her drive to become one herself. Now I can perceive more complex reasons behind her medical degree--along with her fear of being helpless to save others as she was helpless to save him, she wanted to pursue his dream. It only makes sense. I'm surprised I didn't see that element before. Perhaps I just needed to get to know Sheila better.

I also met Jack O'Toole, another surgeon in Trey's platoon. He has a tendency to be cynical and pessimistic, but beyond that, I don't know much about him. I'm hoping to learn more as the story continues.

That said, there's still hardly a drop of backstory so far. We know that Trey's wife and son are dead, but not how they died. Maureen spilled a bit of Sheila's story, but she only got far enough to say that Sheila was going to get married at one time. The fact that Aaron (his name hasn't even been mentioned yet) is dead is implied at the end of Sheila's first POV scene, and most readers should pick up on that. I'm not quite sure when the full stories will surface, along with some other key threads of the plot, but I'm assuming they'll come in at the right time.

When I started on Thursday, I felt completely unprepared--I only had about twenty scene cards done and hadn't researched much beyond Operation Husky. Now I'm glad that I started writing at this point. Plotting as I go allows a little more room to breathe, and it's a bit more of an adventure. I'm still glad that I have many of the key conflicts and threads figured out, though. It's nice to be able to work toward those things.

Well, I should get to writing. Time's a-wastin'!