clues at the scene

clues at the scene

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Aim Takes Effort

At left, the FBI target practice from vehicle in the 1930's.

Copyrright free photo from wikicommons.

New project. new story. New conflict.

I love stories with a weaving conflict. One, the another, then another and somehow they're related by more than the presence of the protagonist.

These sorts of conflicts work well within the confines of a crime story.

I have a different sort of crime story on my mind now and the protagonist is a juvenile. She's worldly, tough, and uniquely equipped to deal with the darker subjects of crime fiction. This is no YA tale. This is a crime story with a young protagonist.

I'm working on the weave. I have to dance the reasoning of believably as to why she'd be involved and why she'd be uniquely suited to be involved. I think I've got that part down.

Now, to weave the events together with the antagonist, the contributing conflicts, the cause and effect pendulum.

I once accidentally tapped a dead short from a pair of 220 cables hanging from the shop ceiling attached to jumper cable heads. We had extremely large electric motors in the shop (oilfield equipment)  and this necessitated ready power for the repair and servicing cycle. We had live power dangling from the ceiling in a most OSHA unapproved fashion.

Anyway, I dead shorted these on a piece of motor housing instead of through the armature.  Pop. Threw me a dozen feet back onto the shop floor before the 200 amp breaker blew for the circuit. Yea, if it had gone through me in earnest, would have killed me.

I always wanted a power cell with that sort of juice. I'm going to give one to my protagonist. She's going to pig-stick a fellow when over-matched.

Buffy got nothing on Kate.

I better get to work. Wouldn't want to make her mad.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

That's incredibly lucky that you lived to tell the cable tale! That scares me to death. I told my husband...no roofs. No electrical!

This young sleuth of yours sounds like a keeper.

spike said...

I am really glad you like the idea for my protagonist.

I'm going to try and put a happy super-well-adjusted character in the midst of noir/cold war dysfunction. I like the idea of a character who is able to navigate in harm's way in an unexpectedly pleasant demeanor as if there was no other world.

Thanks for the encouragement.