I'm at the point in my story where I'm focusing on a tertiary character. Every time this person learns something upsetting, they commit a malicious act. Nothing blatant; simply things that are meant to scare the MC. Not being a malevolent person, I'm stretching to come up with ideas. The incidents can't be physically threatening, just psychologically. I've examined the MC's fictional environment to try to invent plausible acts that would go unseen until she discovers them later. Right now, she's found a headless mannequin floating in her pond. Too cliche? Probably.
Another issue I'm dealing with is the obviousness of the perpetrator. Either my MC is mind-numbingly naive or a hopeless optimist. She does consider the other character to be her best friend, even though that person isn't very nice to be around. And MC hasn't managed to connect the dots that these events happen immediately after she's shared some good news with her "friend". I'm working on a bit of deflection right now. An actual friend calls her at work and announces that he's caught the kids responsible. I'm not sure how much of this will get drawn out, but hopefully enough to cast some doubt in the reader's mind, since every single person on earth except my MC knows by now who perpetrated the acts.
Overall, though, I'm pleased with how my new focus is progressing. I'm not imposing any deadlines; I just write the scenes I enjoy writing. No more truncating. The original manuscript was horribly truncated, in retrospect. Plus, it's fun to invent scenarios, although it is beyond me what the ultimate destructive act will be. I had enough trouble coming up with the mannequin idea.
The main takeaway for me is that writing is becoming fun again. I like solving puzzles, and while I might fail on the first try, I keep going 'til I conquer it.
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