Analyzing for Plot

In James Scott Bell’s wonderful Plot & Structure, he asks his readers to do an exercise and break down several books of their choice, scene by scene, and identify several things for each scene: the POV character, the setting, the type of scene (action, reaction, setup, deepening), a two-line summary of the scene, and a note about why you’re reading on (or not).

In general, my note about why I’m reading on is phrased as a question–the one the scene has made me ask, so I have to read on to discover the answer.

Excavation

As an archaeologist and a thriller writer, how could I not analyze this book?

By the way, it should be obvious but let me say it anyway–spoiler alert. Don’t read this exercise if you haven’t read the book. Also, if you haven’t read the book, my two sentence summaries may not mean much. That said, I will not be posting the entire book.  Instead, I’ll show my analysis up to Doorway 1 (the end of Act 1).

The Milestones

As we go through the scenes, we’ll be looking for the major milestones of plot: the disturbance (aka the hook), inciting incident (aka catalyst), and doorway 1 (aka the first plot point, aka the climax of Act 1).  Were we to go further, we’d also be looking for pinch point 1, the world-changing midpoint, pinch point 2, doorway 2 (aka the second plot point, aka the climax of Act 2), and the climax of the novel.  Even though I’m not going to show the scene-by-scene breakdown after Act 1, I will show where the major milestones fall at the end of this post.

Scenes 1 through 9

Scene: 1
Setting: Peru, 1538 AD
POV: Friar
Scene type: Action
Summary: A young Dominican friar is being hunted in the jungle. He is scheduled to be executed, the bloodletting already done, and he’s also had chicha (fermented corn beer).  He crosses a rope bridge, cuts it behind him, climbs to a mountain top, on top of an altar, and kisses his cross. He has to make sure his captors don’t get it, so he slits his own throat.
Read on?  Why does he have to kill himself?

(Bell would call this scene the “disturbance” and it’s also been called the “Oh No! moment” or “the hook“. I liked the disturbance in the first scene, just as Dan Brown had done in Deception Point. I’m not a fan of prologues but I’m willing to go with it here, since it’s several centuries in the past and this is archaeology after all.)

Scene: 2
Setting: Johns Hopkins
POV: Henry
Scene type: Action
Summary: Professor Henry Conklin unwraps a mummy from Peru, with a reporter and scientists looking on.  Joan estimates the age of the mummy.  They find the cross and reason that this non-Incan was mummified–because he died at a sacred site, which is also why the Inca didn’t take his cross.  They do a medical scan and the mummy explodes, spewing gold.
Read on?  What’s up with the mummy?

(Now we know why the friar killed himself–so he’d be mummified with the cross.  In a way, this is a second disturbance of sorts, one for the modern timeline–the only timeline from this point on.)

Scene: 3
Setting: Peru
POV: Sam
Scene type: Action
Summary: Sam Conklin and Norman Fields are in the jungle at a newly discovered site in the mountains.  Sam is Henry’s nephew.  As night approaches, they worry about looters.  Gil is the security guard for the site.  Ralph, a fellow grad student, has found a sealed door underground.  They go down.  Maggie is cleaning the door.  Denal, a 13 year old Quechan translator is there.  Also we meet Philip, the grad student in charge.  As they clean the door, they find the image of a crucifix.
Read on?  Why is there a crucifix on an Incan door?

Scene: 4
Setting: Peru
POV: Gil
Scene type: Action
Summary: Gill is outside with his rifle.  He is conferring with fellow looters.  They’ll wait for night to do their looting.
Read on?  The site and the crew are in peril.

(Notice that I put the site first. That’s an archaeologist for you.)

Scene: 5
Setting: Peru
POV: Maggie
Scene type: Action
Summary: Maggie, who is Irish, reads a latin inscription with a magnifying glass.  The students discuss how the etchings got there and what they mean.  They realize it’s a message to ward people off and are excited the door could be intact.  They video conference with Henry.  He tells them to open the door in the morning.  He then tells Sam privately that they’re actually at the tip of a Moche pyramid.
Read on?  Can they get inside the pyramid?

(The underground pyramid and the presence of the cross are the catalyst for the book, the point of the story, and the point around which the various sub-plots revolve.)

Scene: 6
Setting: Peru
POV: Gil
Scene type: Action
Summary: Gil and fellow looters open the sealed door and find tons of gold, but it’s all booby-trapped.
Read on?  Will the traps kill them?

(Well, it smacks a bit of Raiders, but at least it’s a movie I like.)

Scene: 7
Setting: Peru
POV: Sam
Scene type: Action
Summary: Maggie wakes Sam up to talk about the etchings in the door.  She wants him to use some special technique of his to clean the door.  The birds in the jungle all take flight and it’s too quiet. They join the rest of the students at the entrance, head in, and hear screaming.
Read on?  Will they survive the traps?

Scene: 8
Setting: Peru
POV: Gil
Scene type: Action
Summary: Gil figures out the booby-trap, steals a couple of things, and then decides to blow it up in order to seal it until he can bring a crew back.  He barely escapes with a gold goblet.
Read on?  Will the crew die?

Scene: 9
Setting: Peru
POV: Maggie
Scene type: Action
Summary: Maggie hears Gil running toward them, so they hide.  He runs by and she sees the grenade he’s carrying and tells the crew they need to get out.  She feels as though she’s going to have a seizure. Gil drops the grenade.  Maggie pushes everyone into a side chamber to escape the blast.  The explosion traps them and Maggie has a seizure.
Read on?  Can they escape?  What’s wrong with Maggie?

(It’s come up quickly, but there you have it, the end of Act 1.  This scene is what Bell might call Doorway 1, that milestone in the plot of the book that sends the reader through into Act 2.  It’s a plot doorway that the characters must go through and it’s a one-way-only door. I’d say this scene meets those criteria.)

The Major Plot Milestones

The Hook - Scene 1; a friar kills himself on an Incan altar.

The Catalyst - Scene 5; they are excavating a buried Moche pyramid.

Doorway 1 - Scene 9; they are trapped inside the mountain.

Pinch 1 – Scene 18; the looters kill runners sent for help (in Peru).

Mid-point Crisis – Scene 26; the cross, in the US, is made of an unknown substance; Henry and Joan are kidnapped and taken to Peru.  We eventually find out who is behind their kidnapping and why, changing the arc of the story and bringing the sub-plots together.

Pinch 2 – Scene 38; the students who have survived, escape the caverns of the mountain, only to find themselves in an ancient Inca village.

Doorway 2 – Scene 51; Henry and Joan are brought by their kidnappers to the village where the students are.

Climax – Scene 57; the cataclysmic battle.

Denouement 1 – Scene 58; survivors leave from the airport in Cuzco.

Epilogue – Scene 61; the miraculous substance has survived in the US.

For the Uber-Plotters

I cannot resist!

I’ve split the 61 scenes of the novel into equal “parts” of twenty scenes each, except for Part 3, which had 21 scenes.

Wow, this book essentially started with a bang and never let up.  A full 80% of the scenes are action scenes. Where character and emotion might be deepened, there was also reaction, such that no scene seemed dedicated to deepening.  Likewise, Rollins does little to set up the non-stop action in the book. The conclusion of one scene virtually always leads into more action for the next scene.

In terms of major plot milestones, we have the following:

This fast-paced story launches into the middle of the book early, only 15% of the way through. Although it might seem like a short book, because it has 61 scenes compared to Deception Point‘s 137, Amazon lists it at 438 pages long in a mass market paperback format (I read the e-book).  At that length, it is (very) roughly equivalent in word count to Deception Point–about 120,000 words. Deception Point developed much more slowly (Doorway 1 at 36%), had no mid-point crisis, and peaked late (Climax at 97%).  In many ways, Excavation seems to break down, plot-wise, into something more expected.  Both, however, were successful in building tension and both used extraordinary, if not implausible, physical circumstances to generate the excitement.

Take Away

As James Scott Bell had promised, the results of doing this exercise have been fabulous, especially for a plotter. Although I haven’t presented the tallies for the POV data–how the scenes divide up between the different characters–the lack of deepening and setup scenes in Excavation (as interpreted by me) lead me to believe that the two authors might have had very different goals. Even so, as widely disparate as Excavation and Deception Point are at first glance, their underlying plot milestones are not that different.  I would guess that most fiction, likely most commercial fiction at any rate, adheres to the basics of plot and structure, as explicated by writing mentors. Otherwise, it would not only violate reader expectations but also the basic three act structure that’s been around since the Greeks invented it.

I’ve enjoyed reading and analyzing both books, but I think the real benefit of the exercise doesn’t come from my geeky number crunching.  Instead, I have more of a sense of the timing of a thriller, and what works for me as a reader.  As I accrue my analyses, I’m steeping myself in the mechanics of books in a genre I enjoy, hopefully to the point where I can manage the same thing in my own writing, without the calculations.

The Major Plot Milestones

The Hook – Scene 1; a scientist is thrown out the back of a helicopter.

Ticking Clock – Scene 12; the president has a press conference scheduled.

The Catalyst – Scene 23; a meteorite with fossil life has been found.

Doorway 1 – Scene 50; the shooting starts and some scientists die.

Pinch 1 – Scene 67; a reminder that the clock is still ticking

Mid-point Crisis – N/A.

Pinch 2 – Scene 97; loss of an ally.

Doorway 2 – Scene 123; a big reveal and dire physical threats.

Climax – Scene 133; the cataclysmic battle.

Denouement 1 – Scene 135; for the Washington, D.C., sub-plot

Denouement 2 – Scene 136; for the main storyline.

Epilogue – Scene 137

One of the interesting ways DB deviated from some of the plot outlines discussed for novels, particularly thrillers, was the lack of a big midpoint crisis.  As a reader, I never missed it.  The action was really thick at that point and the pages were turning mighty fast.  As a writer, I wonder what might have happened to the plot or sub-plot had something gone incredibly awry at the midpoint.

I also think the “pinches” I’ve identified could very well be my own inventions.  As a reader, I never looked for moments where there was a breather from the action and a chance for the heroes to reflect on the seriousness of their task.  I simply wanted more action and for some of the big questions to get answered.  As a writer, I can see the pinch working to increase tension, although there’s plenty of that in this novel.

For the Uber-Plotters

You know you want this.

I’ve split the 137 scenes of the novel into equal “parts” of twenty scenes each, except for Part 7, which had 17 scenes.

A couple of interesting things pop out from the chart above.  As you’d expect for a thriller, the action scenes outnumber all the other scenes put together.  Go, DB, go!  Also, the setup and deepening scenes are heaviest at the outset.  Reaction scenes jump up in Parts 4 and 5, after there’s something to react to, like Doorway 1 (in Part 3).

In terms of major plot milestones, we have the following:

Again, there are just a few things to note.  Doorway 1 happened 36% of the way through the book (as calculated with scenes, not pages or words, unfortunately).  I’ve often read a good place might be the one-quarter mark, or 25%, but this is more like the 1/3 mark–a little more, in fact.  Likewise, Doorway 2 (as I interpreted it) seems to have been pushed back as well, with the climax following not too long after.  Then again, once Doorway 2 begins to loom, it is non-stop action.

Take Away

As James Scott Bell had promised, the results of doing this exercise have been fabulous–especially for a plotter.  Slipping into mentat mode right at the end, I even got to have a couple of small charts!  Would I do this again?  You bet.  In fact, I already have.  Although each novel was a thriller (Koontz, King, Rollins, Preston and Child), I found they were completely different when analyzed in this way.

It’s been interesting to see how successful novels can deviate from expected plotting milestones and still work. Although it’s said over and over the milestones are guidelines and not rules, doing the homework drives it home.  I recommend the exercise highly and, if there’s anybody out there who has done something similar, I’d sure like to know about it.

I’m using James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure exercise of analyzing a novel, scene-by-scene, keeping track of several things in each scene: the setting, the POV character, a two-line summary of the scene, what type of scene it is, and what, if anything, makes you want to read on.

We’ve had hints something is wrong and one of the characters has even died at this point. So, the next plot milestone we’re looking for is Doorway 1, also known as the end of Act 1, and the scene that will propel us into the middle of the novel.

Scenes 41 through 60

Scene: 41
Setting: White House
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Action
Summary: Gabrielle meets her informant–Marjorie Tench.
Read on? Why has Marjorie been feeding her information?

Scene: 42
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Mike
Scene type: Action
Summary: The scientists are puzzled by the salt water and plankton but Rachel sees the explanation.
Read on? The science is starting to break down for me.

Scene: 43
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Action
Summary: Rachel contends the plankton was frozen in the glacier but glaciologist Norah rejects her theory and proposes a test where she, Rachel, Mike, and Corky, have to tether together and go out on the ice.
Read on? What will they find outside?

Scene: 44
Setting: White House, Marjorie’s office
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Action
Summary: Marjorie has financial data on Sexton showing he’s accepting bribes from aerospace corporations so that, once he’s president, he can privatize NASA.
Read on? What will Gabrielle do?

Scene: 45
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Everybody suits up to go outside.
Read on? Will Delta Force kill them too?

Scene: 46
Setting: Marjorie’s office
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Marjorie shows Gabrielle photos of secret meetings in the van, the old man, who is from the Space Frontier Foundation. Tench wants Gabrielle to admit she had affair with Sexton (has photos also).
Read on? Will Gabrielle do what Marjorie wants?

Scene: 47
Setting: Arctic, on the ice
POV: Mike
Scene type: Setup
Summary: They head out in a certain direction, leaving behind breadcrumbs so they can find their way back.
Read on? What will they find?

Scene: 48
Setting: Marjorie’s office
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Gabrielle makes for the exit. Marjorie wants a signed confession so they can pressure Sexton for a withdrawal.

Read on? Is Sexton finished?
Scene: 49
Setting: Arctic, on the ice
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Action
Summary: Rachel, Norah, Mike, and Corky see Ming’s body in the shaft by using their equipment. Norah yells about the data and Delta Force is listening.
Read on? Will Delta Force kill them?

Scene: 50
Setting: Arctic, on the ice
POV: Mike
Scene type: Action
Summary: Data shows someone has drilled up under the ice shelf to insert the meteorite, i.e., the setup is faked. Norah is shot in the head, Corky in the shoulder, by assailants in the distance.
Read on? Will they all die?

(This is what Bell would call Doorway 1–the one-way door through which the characters are propelled, and they can’t go back even if they wanted. You could also call it the end of Act 1, the scene that spins us off into a new direction for the book, and launches us into the middle.)

Moving Along

Now we’re moving! Go, DB, go! We’ve crashed through Doorway 1 (the end of Act 1) and are now hurtling into the middle of the book. The subplot in Washington, D.C., has heated up nicely as well.  In the next and last post, I’ll summarize the entire novel, without spilling the beans about the story.

I’m using an exercise from James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure to analyze a novel, scene-by-scene, keeping track of several things in each scene:  the setting, the POV character, a two-line summary of the scene, what type of scene it is, and what, if anything, makes the reader want to read on.

Scenes 21 through 40

Scene: 21
Setting: CNN
POV: Sexton
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Sexton is gleeful about facing Marjorie in debate but Gabrielle cautions him about going overboard.
Read on? Will Sexton be his own worst enemy?

Scene: 22
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Rachel meets celebrity scientist Mike Tolland and also astrophysicist Corky.
Read on? Why are all the big scientists here?

Scene: 23
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Action
Summary: We get a meteorite tutorial from Corky and learn the meteorite they’ve discovered has a fossil bug in it.
Read on? Is this extraterrestrial life?

(Ah, finally the catalyst, according to the beat sheet, and also know as the inciting incident. Yes, life that didn’t come from earth is pretty exciting.)

Scene: 24
Setting: CNN
POV: Sexton
Scene type: Action
Summary: Marjorie Tench gets Sexton to say he’d close NASA and there’s no point to looking for extraterrestrial life.
Read on? When will the trap be sprung?

Scene: 25
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Paleontologist Ming joins Rachel and the others. There are even more bugs in the meteorite and the theory is that earth was seeded with life.
Read on? Is it true earth was seeded?

Scene: 26
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Rachel learns a glaciologist is helping to raise the meteorite. Mike has put together a mini-documentary for the president to use.
Read on? The press conference is coming up.

Scene: 27
Setting: Limousine
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: She’s worried about Marjorie’s smug look and hears Sexton arrange a private meeting at his apartment.
Read on? Gabrielle suspects something’s up.

Scene: 28
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Rachel meets sassy glaciologist Norah. Learns how a laser helps to raise the meteorite.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 29
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: They raise the meteorite and put her in touch with the president.
Read on? What will she tell the president?

Scene: 30
Setting: Senator Sexton’s Office
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Gabrielle gets a message from her secret informant to meet somewhere.
Read on? Who is the informant and to what end?

Scene: 31
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Ekstrom
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Everybody else is in high spirits, getting ready for the broadcast. He’s dreading something.
Read on? What is he worried about?

Scene: 32
Setting: Arctic
POV: Delta Force
Scene type: Action
Summary: They observe something strange happening to the water in the meteorite extraction pit.
Read on? What do they see?

Scene: 33
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The president puts Rachel on a com link with his staff so that she can convince them.
Read on? What will Rachel say?

Scene: 34
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Ming
Scene type: Action
Summary: Paleontologist Ming sees something strange in the water now that the lights are out.  He wants a water sample.
Read on? What does he see?

Scene: 35
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Rachel discusses the findings and leads up to the big news.
Read on? What will she report?

Scene: 36
Setting: Arctic
POV: Delta Force
Scene type: Setup
Summary: They see Ming trying to get a water sample and decide to stop him.
Read on? How will they stop him?

Scene: 37
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Ming
Scene type: Action
Summary: The microbot swats Ming in the eye. He falls in the water and drowns.
Read on? Why did he have to die?

Scene: 38
Setting: White House, gate
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Gabrielle goes to meet her informant but then is invited into the White House.
Read on? Who is the informant?

Scene: 39
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Mike
Scene type: Deepening
Summary: Mike reflects on his wife’s lymphoma. He sees the water in the pit glowing.  He’s joined by Corky and Rachel.
Read on? What happened to Ming’s body?

Scene: 40
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Mike
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mike explains how luminous plankton might mean that sea water has leaked into the glacial sheet through a crack. He wants to see if water tastes salty.
Read on? What does salty water mean?

Moving Along

Well, the second twenty scenes didn’t have a huge amount of action, but we did get the catalyst, the point to the whole story–extraterrestrial life may have been found in an arctic glacier.

Now we’re ready to move on to the first doorway, aka the end of Act 1, which will happen in the next post in this series.

Analyzing for Plot

But, I find that many books and blogs about book writing analyze movies, and not books. Ergo, vis-a-vis, concordantly–this is a book analysis, done as an exercise while reading James Scott Bell’s wonderful Plot & Structure. He asks his readers to do an index card exercise and break down several books of their choice, scene by scene, and identify several things for each scene, on one index card: the POV character, the setting, the type of scene (action, reaction, setup, deepening), a two-line summary of the scene, and a note about why you’re reading on (or not).  In general, my note about why I’m reading on is phrased as a question–the one the scene has made me ask, so I have to read on to discover the answer.

Deception Point

The first book I read for the index card exercise was Dan Brown’s Deception Point probably the third or fourth DB novel I’ve read. It came out in 2001.

By the way, it should be obvious but let me say it anyway–spoiler alert. Don’t read this exercise if you haven’t read the book. Also, if you haven’t read the book, my two sentence summaries may not mean much.

That said, I will not be posting the entire book.  Instead, I’ll show my analysis up to Doorway 1 (the end of Act 1). It’s not a tease and it’s not my way of trying not to get sued–well, yeah it kinda is.  Mostly, it’s what I would want if it were my book.

With 137 scenes and approximately 116,000 words (an estimate based on number of pages), even getting to Doorway 1 is too much for one blog post–even for me.  In Part 2, we’ll see the catalyst for the novel, in Part 3 we’ll see Doorway 1, and in the final post, I’ll summarize the entire book, in pure plotter fashion.

The Milestones

As we go through the scenes, we’ll be looking for the major milestones of plot: the disturbance (aka the hook), inciting incident (aka catalyst), and doorway 1 (aka the first plot point, aka the climax of Act 1).  Were we to go further, we’d also be looking for pinch point 1, the world-changing midpoint, pinch point 2, doorway 2 (aka the second plot point, aka the climax of Act 2), and the climax of the novel.  Even though I’m not going to show the scene-by-scene breakdown after Act 1, I will show where the major milestones fall in my last post.

Scenes 1 through 20

Scene: 1
Setting: Arctic
POV: Brophy
Scene type: Action
Summary: Geologist Brophy with sled dogs picked up by helicopter. Transmits radio message, then is tossed out the back with dogs and sled.
Read on? What the hell is going on?

(Bell would call this scene the “disturbance” and it’s also been called the “Oh No! moment” or “the hook“. I liked the hook in the first scene. In hindsight, I wish it had somehow involved one of the main characters–without them dying.)

Scene: 2
Setting: Washington, D.C.
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Attractive 34 year old Rachel has breakfast with Senator Sexton, her father, who is running for president. She’s an intelligence analyst. They’re not on the best of terms. He’s a sleaze.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 3
Setting: Arctic
POV: Delta Force Team
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Three military men watching a structure in the distance. Using a robot for flybys.
Read on? Who are they and what do they want?

Scene: 4
Setting: National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Arrives at work and is paged by the director.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 5
Setting: NRO
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: In the director’s office. President has sent a helicopter to pick her up for an immediate meeting. Director suspects politics but recommends she go.
Read on? What does the president want?

Scene: 6
Setting: Arctic facility
POV: Delta Force Team
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The flying microbot is inside the structure. They listen to scientists in awe of something happening. The Delta Team concludes everything is proceeding as expected.
Read on? What are the scientists doing?

Scene: 7
Setting: NASA Base
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Helicopter delivers her to nearby NASA Base where Air Force One is waiting.
Read on? What does the president want?

Scene: 8
Setting: Limousine
POV: Sexton
Scene type: Setup
Summary:   Sexton is with young, attractive assistant, Gabrielle, who had previously recommended Sexton attack NASA to good PR effect. She says the president has been sidetracked ever since a meeting with NASA one week ago.
Read on? Will Sexton, the sleaze, win the race?

Scene: 9
Setting: Air Force One
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Action
Summary: Rachel meets the president, who is very amiable.
Read on? What does he want?

Scene: 10
Setting: Limousine and Garage
POV: Gabrielle
Scene type: Setup
Summary: She’s beginning to doubt Sexton.
Read on? Will she abandon the sleaze?

Scene: 11
Setting: Air Force One
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Rachel and the president talk about NASA. He says they’ve made a great discovery.
Read on? What has NASA found?

Scene: 12
Setting: NASA Base
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The president takes her to a hanger, takes her cell phone, says he’ll talk to her later. He’s used private scientists to confirm findings, but wants her analysis, and will have a press conference tonight.
Read on? Time pressure and what does NASA have? (I like that a ticking clock has begun.)

Scene: 13
Setting: F-14
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Action
Summary: An F-14 takes Rachel north.
Read on? What is going on in the Arctic?

Scene: 14
Setting: Parking Basement
POV: Sexton
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Sexton meets an anonymous old man in a white van. He instructs Sexton to meet with corporate moguls at his house. Suggests that victory only begins with the White House.
Read on? Who is helping Sexton and why?

Scene: 15
Setting: White House
POV: President
Scene type: Setup (I know that an international thriller takes some time to set up, but I would really like the story to take off sooner.)
Summary:  The president arrives and wants to meet with the entire staff at 4 pm in the oval office to make an announcement.
Read on? Still waiting for the big announcement.

Scene: 16
Setting: Arctic
POV: Delta Force
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Delta Force is contacted by their controller, who tells them a new player is about to arrive and must be watched closely. The big news will go public in eight hours and their current assignment will end.
Read on? The time table is short, even if the setup isn’t.

Scene: 17
Setting: F-14
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Deepening
Summary: Rachel recalls her mother, her death in a car accident at Thanksgiving. The plane lands in the Arctic and a big NASA vehicle drives out to welcome her.
Read on? What’s going on in the Arctic?

Scene: 18
Setting: White House
POV: President
Scene type: Action
Summary: Analyst Marjorie tells the president she will debate Sexton at 1 pm on CNN to make the president’s team look desperate.
Read on? Will her tactic work? Somehow they want to appear down, before their big announcement later on.

Scene: 19
Setting: Arctic, Milne Glacier
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The NASA director (Ekstrom) is waiting for her in the domed structure.
Read on? Get there already!

Scene: 20
Setting: Arctic, NASA structure
POV: Rachel
Scene type: Action
Summary: The NASA director tells her they’ve found a 300 year old meteorite.
Read on? So, it’s a meteor. So what?

Moving Along

In the next post, we’ll analyze the next twenty scenes and, in terms of the story, we’ll actually get some of the information for which we’ve been patiently waiting. In terms of plot analysis, we’ll also get the catalyst–how interesting those two go together.