re: Does anyone else here write?

Pretty much. I know I want my character to be in specific times and places. I know exactly what's going to happen in two of those places. The middle is tricky and messy. I guess I could cut it out, but I think that'd be a mistake because the backdrop is a reverse of what happened at the beginning. The real meat of the story is the third act. The first two are showing the character growing over his first 30-40 years.