From my writing journal on 16 July:

There’s no reason that a sword from a dream needs to stay a sword when it’s pulled into the real world. So, Chuck is led to a mirror by the little girl. He sees his dream self in his reflection. The dream self mirrors his actions precisely. He makes the dream self take off the sword and hand it to him through the mirror. When the sword enters the “real” world, it becomes a wooden cane with a brass dragon’s head for a handle. When Chuck finds his magic, as Michael did, he’ll turn it back into a sword.

This ended up being a point at which the two sets of conflicting characters glance off of each other, at varying rates of speed. I talked the above idea over with Nikki, and she said, “That’s exactly what I expected you to do.” This perturbed me for a reason that I couldn’t quite nail down, so I spun it again. Chuck is presented with the same option, but reacts in a way that is unexpected by those trying to manipulate him. And then the repercussions of their attempts ripple across the larger scene at a nice clip, providing a very nice buildup to something that I have outlined for Chapter 10.

Now that I’ve got that knot untangled, I’m getting words on paper again. I got some time out of the house yesterday, and made quite a bit of progress. As soon as I type it all up, I’ll update the word count so you all are kept in the loop, so to speak. :)

As I wait for more feedback from my alpha readers (hint, hint), I’ve gotten some good ideas about how to go about the novella rewrite from feedback that I’ve gotten already. Implementing some of them will really serve to tighten the focus of the story, and get you caring about the characters more quickly. That’s the plan, anyway.