what can i say? they’re fun.

despite my secondary comments yesterday about Salt, i have just finished what could be considered a standard Hollywood action sequence. Herrick is now truly on the run and very nearly empty, which lends itself quite well to a chase scene. i had not actually envisioned this particular chase, so i was building the road as he was driving, so to speak. i’m not entirely comfortable with this process, but it was a lot of fun.

i also raised the stakes of the previous interrogation by making a personnel change, which i had first considered early on, then abandoned in favor of the scene as i’d outlined it. tonight i realized that the instinct was more accurate than the outline, and made the decision to revert. as a result, Herrick is even worse off than before. as a direct result, then, he wasn’t going to be stopped during the ensuing chase. conversely, his pursuers were equally driven to stop him.

Herrick’s less than upstanding nature is again on display here, though, as he cares less for those around him than for himself, and innocents are endangered as he uses them to obstruct his pursuers. here is where i hope the scene deviates from the standard action flick chase. we’ll see if it works out.

—

in other news, i found myself creating a young adult series* this afternoon. it came largely out of nowhere, than i can think of. it started with another idea entirely that i thought would be cool for a YA series, but as i tried to write that one out, i realized just how schlocky it was, so i scrapped it. almost immediately, this unrelated idea swept over me and i could only grab the pencil and hold on.

i’m sticking with RoE, of course, but this other one may well be right behind it. i think i’ll codename it Darkstar, for now.

these are good days.

* at the mention of which word my wife understandably groaned