"Terror by Fire"

Read "The Big Burn," by Timothy Egan and realized that I was missing something.

I don't show individual houses threatened, though in the size of the fires I'm describing, it must be happening all over. Nor do I have a town get destroyed. (I have a couple of towns escape, but I'm thinking I need one destroyed.)

There is a scale and size in the Big Burn that I'd like to try to get into my book.

Problem is, I've already got four or five separate plotlines, so trying to burn down a town would add yet another.

I slept on it and realized I have a couple of secondary characters that would work really well. Have one of them realize the old homestead is going to burn, barely escape, reach a town and have the town start to burn as well.

So I may just attempt to write a chapter, and see if it fits.

Also realized I'm not entirely happy with the last chapter. It has a couple of different tones. Half the chapter was originally the first chapter, as flashforward, and the other half was written as climax.

I'm thinking I can split it in two. Again, I can give this a try and if it doesn't work, then go back to the original setup. At the very least I need to concentrate on rewriting it.

I've also decided that I need to have the bulk of the action happening in one day: Once the action starts, it happens fast.