Timelines, time frames--and condensation

I was working on an outline today--trying to make sense of this enormously convoluted plot with stuff going off in different directions. I like complicated plots--but sometimes it's like I'm on a Tilt-a-whirl, spinning until I'm holding on by my fingertips, and centrifugal force is trying to fling me splat against the wall.

I couldn't get past the beginning--no, that's not true. I got past the beginning, but I couldn't write the beginning, if that makes any sense. I kept writing into the middle because I knew where Connor and Jacey were going but I had no idea how to get them there. When stuff like that happens, I start thinking maybe the story starts a little later. People always say--start in the middle.

Other people told me I started too far after the middle and needed to back up. I've been wondering who the hell is right. I can't very well dump into this multi-stranded thriller with people going, "huh?"

I know what's going on, but we're not at virtual reality PlayStation like on those old commercials.

I started with a prologue, I started with Connor landing at the airport, I started with Jacey meeting him, I started in his hotel room--I blinded him, blinded her, made him wear geeky clothing (only a novel, lol...) and gave him bad b.o. Just to see where it went. But it only "went" when they interacted--after they'd met, when their relationship was settling into this kind of guarded truce.

And then--I sat in traffic.

--Don't get me wrong, I love my car (YAY!!!! I have "my" car back. A solid month after handing it to the movers)--

And had a brain fart.

Sort of like a gaseous explosion along the lines of "why the HELL didn't I think of that before?"

If B needs to happen, so C can happen. Why hadn't I put in A?

I need to get Tris and Connor together to set Dead Gorgeous in motion, but the story doesn't start in DG. It starts in Hot Contract, in the epilogue. So now I know--okay, it's started already. So they meet, he starts investigating, everyone tries to kill him. But before that happens, I need a transition.

Something to bridge the gap from Hawaii to Singapore. In a movie it would start with the airport, a long pan over the gate area or the ground spiraling up. In some ways Cinematic Storytelling is right, because you need to set your shot for maximum impact.

I want to frame Connor's uncertainty. Yeah, he was Delta, but he's had some bad experiences--and now he's having problems. I guess if I wanted to go with a stock treatment (and lol--I'm reading way too many screen-writing books) I'd paint him heroic, give him the Ar-nuld treatment and paint him shallow, but he's a guy. He grew--not the way he wanted--and changed into someone he doesn't recognize anymore.

Which brings me back to Jacey and my deleted scene (I keep them all at the end of the file just in case). I moved it back, had her at the airport, gave them both 20/20, and had people try to kill them from the get go.

It condensed three chapters and got rid of baggage by letting me go from plane>to airport>to Jacey>to action. Just like a movie.