The problem with Outcast is that is has a lot of slow moments. Unlike Soldier, this one is mostly set in a castle. The main character is recovering from a serious injury. The major conflict here is political. It's clashes between people in power with barely a sword drawn. If done well, it'll hold people's attention and keep them tense. If done poorly, it's SO BORING OMFG I WANT TO GOUGE MY OWN EYES OUT.
Ahem.
Aaaaaanyway...
I'm fairly comfortable writing battle scenes. I can manage that pretty well. I'm fine with decapitation and spilled guts, unfathomable fatigue and numbness and all of that in-battle stuff. I'm terrible at politics, and so writing it is frustrating me a bit.
I think the angle I'm going for is wrong. I'm trying for political, I think I need to go more horror.
I was complaining about this to my friend, when a scene just popped fully formed into my head. I think starting the book off with this scene will set a much better, much darker tone to the story, and might help me moving forward.
Weird, how inspiration strikes. I was literally mid-sentence when it struck, and I had to stop speaking just to write the idea down in my notebook, before I could continue. The conversation changed after that, obviously. I didn't have anything to complain about. I might, a little later on, be complaining about the same thing. We'll see how today's writing goes.
And on that note, I must go and get to work.
Ciao!