RED RIVER KID- A-HA!

Yesterday I was at the theatre's bi-monthly Write Club meeting and more of The Red River Kid was read. It'll still be called The Red River Kid for all intents and purposes until it's finalized, though now Lizzie's outlaw name will be The Pennsylvania Rose (which as far as I know has no menstrual connotations). One of the issues brought up by Pat was the fact that the railroad buying the town, while a good idea, may not be the most accurate for that day and age. And, really, he was right. It's a great idea for a plot, but it is a bit of a leap even when I was trying to make it in my head. So I've spent most of today with half of my brain trying to figure out a new "big threat" to the town. And it had to be a big threat and it had to involve the entire town. Otherwise Lizzie's just being a brat who just wants her way. But if the entire TOWN is threatened and THAT'S why she goes back to being an outlaw, well then she's a big darn hero.

For a while I thought about making a mining company the big bad. They'd either buy the town to strip mine for ore, or they'd divert the river which would a) dry out the town or b) flood the town. But then it's like, how do you buy off a mining company? That won't work.

But then I was reading about early railroads out West and only one railroad ever defaulting... so I started thinking, what if the town already HAS a railroad, but it's going to go under, and if it does, that's going to take the whole town under. So now Lizzie's trying to make money to help either a) pay off the railroad's debt or b) allow the town to buy the railroad itself. Which leads to the funny dialogue of "You're robbing the railroad in order to save the railroad." "Well hell, it sounds stupid when you say it."

We'll see if this works. At the moment I've got a good feeling about it. We'll see how long that lasts.

(There will probably be an actual post up today as well, I just thought I'd share because I thought the idea was clever and wanted to share.)