The Ceiling Fan Principle

Today has not been a productive day.  And there is work tomorrow.  If only I could slide more hours into the day or be better about managing my time.  Granted today I watched my nieces and nephew.

Any who I've been thinking a lot about my novel "The Three Year War" a friend recently gave me some feedback on the novel, actually on New Years Day which definitely made my day.  Of course he noted there were a lot of grammar and spelling errors but it was a first draft.  However what I took away was that he liked the characters, story, and said "excellent ending" 0_0

I had thought the ending might be too vague and I should wrap some of the scenes I'd omitted.  I still might but he did say the beginning was a bit sluggish and it picked up halfway through.  I've observed this as well.  The first chapter hooks you but afterwards it's a bit snoozeville.  It's been in the back of my mind and last night one of the index cards I put in front of my clustered desk caught my eye.  It's goes something along the lines of a-

"The Ceiling Fan Principle:  It boils down in NOT asking what happens next in a story but what goes wrong."

So I've made some notes for scenes and things I'd like to work into TYW that I'm hoping to slip in earlier chapter to help with the pacing of the story and give more about the world.  But as I do this, one of the things I'll be using in my toolkit will be asking myself 'what goes wrong?..."

Well I'm going to do a few errands, hopefully get in some reading time and then start working on Week 2's Short Story which will be a side story for an idea I had years ago called "Love Letters for Hire".  Or I could always change my mind. 

In unrelated news, might be getting sick.  Throat is scratchy :(