For the final act – the last 50 pages — I want the pace to be faster, harsher, emotions more raw, nothing lingers. Contrast to the peaceful, playful opening. Now confusion needs to reign, forces colliding politically, militarily. March to the sea, where any civilian could be a sharpshooter, danger is around any corner. Real jeopardy that Edwin may not survive. He gets more and more shut down, more methodical, more relentless than we’ve seen him before.
The end of 1863 is his last moment of contentment. After that, he needs to get more and more swept away into the unrelenting push to win the war. And the fight in Congress over the 13th Amendment. The Nov. 1864 election Lincoln was expected to lose. Edwin’s estrangement from Sophronia in an attempt to shield her, and she may be lost. Edwin takes too many risks, and he may be lost. Everything implies failure. Something deadly in Georgia, he is angrier in South Carolina. Then joy of the victory is stolen by Lincoln’s assassination. The pall of victory. The price. The thorns on the roses they throw in tribute at the Grand Review.
This energy and pace has to get into dialogue, into his thoughts, into his actions, into the structure & tone of each descriptive sentence. In what I choose and what I leave out. Then, with the war finally won, the final chapter can be like a renewing flood. The tide of emotion that’s going to sweep him back to life, to the rest of his life. With her or without her?
I have to let go of my preconcieved ideas about plot if necessary. Free write.
Ready — go.
