Stitching up details

Finally back into Falling and I'm getting very close to letting other people read it (just hope they remember they promised they would from about four years ago).

I've done all the chapter and sequence break-ups, so no chapter should be longer than four pages. It's a theory I've remembered since reading a mostly-forgotten thriller a couple of years back. Some chapters were no more than a page or so, and I think it's going to give the whole thing a lot of forward momentum. It looks big, but you'll think 'just one more chapter' (as long as you're enjoying it) and get through the whole thing quicker.

Next was to go through and fix the whole reveal about the girl problem, and I think I have.

The sticking point was having Dale not remember who her name was from before. I couldn't have him remember because it would make it more certain it was her (more certain to him, anyway) and take away the doubt that partly drives their relationship.

But it occurred to me that as he'd had a blow to the head when he landed, there'd be all sorts of things he'd forget. There's already some stuff about how he had such a long and difficult recuperation period he just stopped thinking about a lot of stuff from before. He did think about her, because it talks about how he thought every now and then to try and track down her parents, but having him forget her name and face thanks to his injuries (scientifically plausible – look up the story of Phineas Gage) took it the next step.

I also put more of the responsibility on Vicki's shoulders. When he starts talking about how it might be her and her fear of the bridge bubbles up, she gets as confused as he does and – something I still have to flesh out – she feels much more strongly than before how sexual arousal is linked to it.

With both of them in a state of near-delirium/terror/arousal, having them sleep together feels much more plausible.

Anyway, after I go through and rewrite those sequences according to the new set-up, I have a few little details here and there like stitching the Waylan Pakesh siege more to what's going on with the Harbour Bridge – tie it in a bit more. Although maybe the 58.45v thing that comes later does that? Is that enough? Without a bit more tangible a link all it's really doing is introducing Tim and showing him and his methods in action, which is kind of the mission statement of the book – applying scientific enquiry to ghosts and hauntings.

After that there's a lot more mechanical stuff, checking for dashes and semi-colons, numbering the chapters now they're all broken up, redoing a scene plan and chronology. But the end is in sight.