I’ll cop to it: I took a few lazy days off this week and hardly got anything done other than the daily words and some house errands. Sure, I feel a little guilty about it, but it’s not often that I allow myself to have absolutely zero on my To-Do list. I sometimes have to remind myself that I need to do this now and again as part of the recharge process.
See you again on Monday!
I am now at the point in Theadia where I have to visit all the WRITE THIS LATER gaps and…well, write them. Thankfully, I planned ahead of time during this last reread/revision, where I wrote out a paragraph or two of each plot point I need to hit for these scenes and chapters. Also thankfully, most of them are scenes featuring a not-quite-secondary, not-quite-primary character, which means I can focus mostly on the action. As you can guess, I wasn’t entirely sure at first how to approach him as he’s not the kind of character I usually write, and that’s mainly why I skipped them. One, so I won’t lose focus on the rest of the novel, and two, by the time I come back to these scenes, I’ll have a better idea of who he is and why he does what he does.
So why am I putting them there in the first place? Well, if I truly felt that I could get away with not putting them in, I probably would have shoehorned a variant version of the scene (or the information it’s relaying) elsewhere and via a more important character, but I don’t feel that’s the case here. This is a character that isn’t part of the tight-knit main character circle, but they do have a very important link with at least three of them that I think strengthens the story’s logic and flow. He’s an insider that helps the mains achieve their goals without actually abandoning his link to his status within the ranks. He’s gruff and cranky but he’s also extremely intelligent and supportive.
I’ll be honest, using the WRITE THIS LATER gap style of writing novels is still a rather recent change in my writing process. I always write in chronological order from start to finish, and I’m always worried that if I skip scenes too often, the multiple interwoven plot threads running through my head will unravel. This changed when I wrote Diwa & Kaffi, however, when during one of the rereads I realized I’d forgotten to add a key scene that would make the logic and flow work even better.
I still use the style quite infrequently, but these days I’m not as nervous about it. As long as I use it for the right reasons and not out of any sense of laziness or ‘just don’t wanna’ avoidance!
It’s been a rough couple of weeks here at the New Digs. There’s been a bit of drama at the Day Job that I’ve been juggling, not to mention the rise in customer volume considering it’s Q4 and the start of the holiday retail season. I’ve also been doing a hell of a lot of thinking about how I’m going to finish Theadia, and what project(s) I’ll start after that one’s completed. Then there’s the cold/allergies that laid me out for a few days a while back.
Right now I’m feeling very much like I’m somewhere in between where I was and where I need to be, and that can be tense when I can only do so much to keep it moving in the right direction. Sometimes I’m fine with that — the journey’s part of the learning process, as they say — but other times the journey feels like one frustration after another that has to be handled in a certain way in order for the remainder of the trip to be smoother. [Come to find out, this is an ongoing theme in Theadia.] All I can do is just keep going despite the impatience, the anxiety, and the annoyance.
Still, there is a bright side. I’ve gone through this many times before, and if I play this bit of 5D chess the right way like I’ve done before, the end results will definitely be worth it.
The Trilogy Remaster continues on schedule (slightly ahead, actually) and I’ve been allowing myself to revisit the created world as I approach each scene. In the past I may have been one to react with ‘oh yeah, I wrote this one in the Belfry on a super cold winter night while listening to Sea Change‘ or something like that, but this time out I’ve been asking myself: why did I write this scene? Not in a pessimistic way, mind you (those would have an oh gods before the question, heh). I’m asking it in reference to the story as a whole.
Which is kind of interesting, considering that most of this trilogy was semi-pantsed. While I had a pretty good idea of what direction I wanted the story to go in, I never planned ahead more than maybe three or four chapters. However, that was part of the creative process I had at the time: my focus was on the evolution of the characters, and how their interactions provided the actions (or reactions) that followed. The story wasn’t just about the reincarnation of a deity, it was about how different people reacted to that. And that was something that had been set in stone since 1997 when I started The Phoenix Effect.
I think that’s partly why I found it so hard to get MU4 going for the longest time (ten years, coincidentally!), because I’d forgotten about that part of this story’s creation. So….if I’m going to revisit Bridgetown once more, I can’t just write a NextGen-style story. It has to have its own focus on character evolution. And just like the original trilogy, I already know what needs to happen. I just need to figure out how its events will affect the cast. It may take time, but I’m willing to work for it.
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As an aside, please note that the writing of this post was temporarily interrupted by Jules who demanded my attention.
We’d decided it was time to upgrade our phones and went with the Google Pixel 8a. We’ve had really good luck with this brand over the last few years and see no reason to change to anything different. The camera is supposedly even better than the previous iteration, so I figured I’d try it out by taking another shot out Spare Oom window looking north. Looks nice to me!
For the most part I don’t see too many differences but then again I’ve mostly been fiddling with the settings and deciding which apps can stay and which I’ll most likely get rid of eventually. [I mean, do I really need six food-ordering apps when I really only use three of them?] I would like to get back into the habit of taking more pictures again — I mean, other than shots of our two ridiculous cats — and maybe start using the sound recording app again.
And what am I doing with my old phone? Well, I’m planning on using it as an e-reader for the most part. Delete most of the apps on it but keep the Dropbox, Hoopla and B&N apps. Or maybe even continue using that as a camera as well? Who knows?
Hmm. I’ve been plowing through this one scene in Theadia for the last two weeks and it’s taking FOREVER to get through. There’s so many things wrong with what’s ending up on the screen that I’m having second thoughts about keeping what I have so far. I know the problem: it’s a tense scene with a lot of important information that comes to the fore, but the execution of the scene is absolutely atrocious. There’s tension there, but it’s the wrong kind. And the whole scene is from a single person’s point of view and she’s so passive in it that I keep forgetting it’s her scene.
I think the issue here is that I’m still not entirely sure how the scene should unfold. It’s an important scene that needs to be there, where multiple story threads lead up to this moment, but the weave is weak and unstable. [Yes, I’ve been using this particular crafting metaphor a lot with Theadia. There is a reason for it.] What I need to do is map it out again. I did that for Take Two, and to be honest, I probably should have followed my instincts when it was clear this version didn’t quite resonate with me either.
So. What do do? I’m going to cut the entire thing again. Take Three. (Take One did the exact opposite and did a lot of telling-not-showing, which didn’t work either.) As always, I’ll paste this current version into my Outtakes file where I can use it for reference for the next attempt. Hopefully third time’s the charm, yeah?
This moment? At Bobo’s Bubbles Laundrette on Earl’s Court Road in London, waiting for his laundry to finish.
Vacation is treating me well. Lots of walking and pubs and museums. And I have things to do and talk about upon return. See you soon!
Hi there! Remember me? That writer guy who used to blog all the time?
I’ve come back to the blogosphere after a hiatus of two and a half months, and from here on in I’ll be posting once a week on Thursdays. Why once a week? So I don’t repeat myself and so I can spend more time working on long-delayed projects! Yay!
So — what’s new? What’s been going on? What have we missed?
Do I have anything planned for the immediate future? Yes! All sorts of fun things. I’m hoping to be a lot more multimedia this time, actually. More Drunken Owl music experiments. More story ideas. More visual arts. The road is clear and I can’t wait. (Wish I could be more clear about this, but right now it’s all in demo and planning stages. You’ll know when I know, heh!)
Glad to be back!
Zuzannah is not your typical magical girl.
Diana Meeks had planned to spend a few relaxing weeks camping in the hills above town with her sisters Katie and Allie, and Katie’s boyfriend Greg. But this will be no ordinary vacation.
On the trail to their cabin, the air is suddenly split in two by a blinding light and the blade of a katana, and a young woman spills through the tear, fainting from exhaustion.
Zuzannah is a girl from a future world where the powers of magic are an everyday occurrence…and where her pursuer has amassed most of it for his own nefarious ends. Zuze is committed to stopping him at any cost, and has crossed the weave of time in a desperate bid to regain her own strength and search for help…
…and she’s found it in Diana and her sisters. But are they up to the task?
In My Blue World will be released as an e-book via Smashwords on March 2nd!
Welcome to Bridgetown 