I have two older books here that I began with to eliminate weaknesses in my writing. "Plot How to build short stories and novels that don't sag, fizzle, or trail off in scraps of frustrated revision-and how to rescue stories that do." by Ansen Dibell, Writers Digest Books 1988 and "Revising Fiction, A Handbook for Writers" by David Madden, Plume 1988. After reading a book about Beat Writers I now know I have lots of characters but they are all too famous and thin. I have been in the room at a lecture by Zora Arkus Duntov, Edward Teller, and "Kelly" Johnson. I have met J.S. McDonnell in an elevator and talked to him riding 5 floors. To get closer to a character I need Captain "Zeke" Cormier who promotes videos for Time/Life and whose briefing books I have read or Lt. "Randy" Cunningham whom I have spent some time with at Fightertown and has his own book "Foxtwo". To fictionalize and avoid libel and other nasty overlays what I read in the Beat Writers was very helpful about their dealings with publishers over decades.
That is sort of where I am. This morning I was trying to avoid a novel called "Cold Cast Iron." It has a lot of focal but needs to lay a foundation first of solid characters as the whole media changes.