Creating a skeletal plotline and randomocity

I think I finally have The Harvester of Faces plotted out. Finally.

When I say "plotted out" I mean I've created the bare bones of the story. I have no idea how I'm going to do some of it. But I know where the road is going now so the rest of it will come.

It's amazing how hard this is for me. At this point all I want is very broad strokes. High-level stuff, like "So-and-so is murdered," Or, "Whosis is identified as s suspect," without worrying about details. The temptation, though, is to start worrying about the details now, which defeats the purpose.

So, here's what I did. I broke it down into three acts and tried to have at least three plot points for each act. There may be more (but no more than five) but never less. If you have less than three then you really should combine that act with another one as it's not enough to stand on its own. If you have more than five, maybe you need a new act--four or even five. Each point should be just one sentence. The whole thing should be at most a half page long.

Next step is to finally start worrying about those details. A little. I'll start slogging through a treatment (again), using this as the map. Again, it should not be more than a page long. If it's longer then it's too complicated, which conflicts with my basic philosophy of life--Keep It Simple, Stupid.

My next decision--should I write this as a screenplay or a novel?

I'm torn. Me and prose fiction are sort of on the outs at the moment. We could reconcile, I guess, and this thing would make a pretty good novel.

But I'm enjoying writing screenplays, too, and I'm starting to have some success in that area, too. This would make a crackerjack movie.

I guess I'll make a final decision when I've got the treatment done. Hopefully, now that I have this outline, it'll be a bit easier.

Football-wise, this season has been a disappointment. The Falcons have, against all expectations, sucked. Dammit. They've had some injuries but they should not be that bad--don't ask me what's wrong. I'm thinking it might be time for a coaching change. Just sayin'.

And I go back to work tomorrow after being off all week for dad's funeral. My poor inbox is probably straining at all the email waiting for a response.

Don't get me started on politics right now. It is with great delight that I watch the Republican party self-detonate--but it is with the fear that they'll manage to take the rest of the country with them.