My CHARACTERS are not thinking about the ACT breaks. They're thinking about what they need to do to MOVEFORWARD. As long as I focus on that, the story starts to progress. As soon as I THINK, 'We're 20 pages in, something better blow up,' we're in trouble.
I do a lot of lectures on SURVIVAL. I ALWAYS say you can't CHANGE what HAPPENED, so have a little wallow, feel very SORRY for yourself, and then get up and move forward. You can't change what happened.
The image of me as someone who likes or can deal with a fight is wrong. Some people ENJOY competition and dustups, and I wish I did, but I don't. But once you have STARTED down a path, then I think you have to MOVE forward. You can't GIVE up.
RELIGIOUSINSTITUTIONS should have religious freedom on this issue. No church or minister should EVER have to conduct a marriage that is inconsistent with their religious BELIEFS. But I think as a civil institution, this issue's time has come and we need to move forward.
I've found that when I'm having trouble solidifying a CHARACTER or a scene, that music will often free my subconscious just that last little bit to ALLOW me to move forward, and often it's in a direction that I didn't expect, but is 100 percent TRUE to the character.