Chapter four was being so difficult, I skipped ahead to what would happen immediately after I got through the hospital bit. Oddly enough, considering I only vaguely knew where I was going after the hospital bit, it worked. Now I’m back to chapter four and filling in the transition. It reminds me of that scene in Dead Poets’ Society (won’t quote since I only ever saw the movie in the theater)–in essence, stand on the desk to get a different view of the same old scene. Change your perspective, and suddenly, it’s all much clearer. I don’t know why, but it works.
First readers still approve! I’m into chapter four now after some minor, improving edits suggested by said first readers and just wrestled through another of those transition scenes that always bog me down. When I was first writing, I had the habit of just ending scenes abruptly and moving to the next important moment or scene, skipping over the Very Irksome Transitions. Of course, this made things very choppy, so I cannot recommend it. These days, I prefer to deal with the VITs as I go rather than doing a full “smooth crappy transitions” revision run-through later.
 But yay.
Also, Nano looks like a go, so I need to review my notes for La Cause and make sure I’m read to Do This Thing! I tried in 2005 and didn’t have a good enough grasp of my idea so gave up. I used 2006’s Nano month to work on major revisions to SanClare Black (didn’t quite make my personal target but came very close; didn’t count for “real” Nano in any case), but this year, I’m going to try to do it correctly and stick to it. Just ’cause I think it might be a fun and liberating way to get a really bloody awful first draft of La Cause done. I’m already telling myself to just write whatever including “this part sucks; fix later” and then DO the VITs and move on, always aiming for the final 50k target.
That’s my idea, at least. We shall see.