Cap Hit

Chapter 5: Is This Enough Preparation?

After she formally accepts the challenge issued to her last week, Caro starts making adjustments to her stream interface, with a word counter located above the chat window. Once that is done, Caro feels her blood boil as she reads a resource given to her by Sampoong in a DM about how much sports content is too much in a sports romance.

"I'll show them that I can fit the transactional aspect of hockey into a hockey romance!" Caro lets her bitterness show in her tone of voice. "I'll probably read the last book recommended to me, and the rest of the time will be devoted to reading more of these resources as Capitolium and now Sampoong gave me!"

This also means that, as much as I would love my male lead to take the female lead to a game, that game should set up the opponent as a possible trading partner down the road! And also have the male lead dread the trade deadline, too... especially since I want team B to be out of the playoff picture by that point, but the resulting trade to be win-win, she starts thinking, while Capitolium sends her the link to register for NaNoWriMo.

Which then causes a bulb to flash in her mind. But at the same time, it leads her wondering about Capitolium's participation. She asks him about it in a Discord DM:

Caroline: Now that I accepted the challenge, I might be wondering if you're taking part in it

Capitolium: NaNoWriMo? Yes, although I'm not writing about a professional player

Caroline: Are you talking about major junior or college hockey?

Capitolium: Major junior

Caroline: Why did you keep quiet about NaNoWriMo until you gave me the link to register for it?

Caro is talking about life once in the NHL, while I am talking about the road to get there. From being a star player in major junior or in college, to the draft and then the AHL affiliate of the team that drafted the player, Capitolium reflects on what he wants out of his own hockey romance. Found family, and I want my male lead to hit on the daughter of the billet family.

Capitolium: After all the stuff that happened last year with the organization, I didn't want it to be mentioned explicitly on air

Caroline: I guess it must be really bad...

Caro then adds another word count tracker on her stream interface to reflect Capitolium's. And then resumes reading about other things specific to writing romance books. About what it's really like to be a WAG (a player's wife or girlfriend) in the NHL.

And, of course, what the MMC must do to earn the respect of his new teammates. Which would then make him improve his game. At the end of the night, she starts wondering if there's anything missing from her plan for the month. Like her FMC being a little... flat.

Last night, you were implying that characters who were nothing without their traumas were flat! Caro hears Glitter's voice from a previous stream. Which causes her to ruminate, and also causes her headaches to mount. I was so focused on my male lead's growth as a player that I forgot about fleshing out my female lead! I can always fixate C later, but I think I could get the first plot-bearing game to pit A against B, and I would need to determine what cities A, B and C are.

Yet, Caro's struggles don't end when she falls asleep. Her own viewers appear to her in a troubled dream:

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Five ghosts flew in a circle above her bedroom. Glitter came down first:

"Caro, by now you know that so many in the romance world tend to focus on conflict internal to either the characters or the relationship!" Glitter's ghost self screamed at her. "Please, fill out a character questionnaire for your FMC!"