WIP Wednesday Isn't Groundbreaking
27 Jan
Plaguebringer nears the 20k mark– just a few hundred off, and I expect that to be managed tonight. Got a big important scene coming up! I’m getting slightly better at getting everything going quickly nowadays, which is great. But when we’re doing epic fantasy levels of plot threads, it won’t do to drop them all at once, I guess. (Again, this is not proper epic fantasy, it’s, er, clockpunk dark fantasy. Right.)
This time I’m not writing it completely in order, either. There are two main locations for the first part, so I’m writing the first location up to the point where it intersects with the plot from the second (which isn’t all that far, in the grand scheme), and then going back and filling in the second so I can adjust for pace and the like.
Never done it like this before. Wonder how it’ll work. Any experiences?
Okay enough boring nuts and bolts crap. I was trying to find a bit that actually says something about the plot, but I’m a silly mood today– the kind that calls for stupid bits that will probably be hacked from the final draft anyhow. So here’s Rufus, the knife-happy guy from the last bit, and Cami, the angree lieutenant from the first one. Rufus just got done talking to a little girl who stopped him to ask about his ears. (Because it’s cute when kids do it. Not grown-ups.)
“Cute,” Cami said. “That supposed to impress me?”
Rufus pretended to sigh. “Why are beautiful women always so self-centered?”
She snorted. “Why are beautiful men?”
“All right, you win that one. But I’ll have you know that I love children.”
“I doubt you love anything.”
“Assassins are people too. Just like Valdonians.”
She shot him a dirty look, but didn’t take the bait; she contented herself with fuming internally for the rest of the way to the smithy. That, and wondering which of her tattoos she wasn’t covering properly, or if she’d slipped into her native accent.
Smart-assed Senecan pretty-boy. She could already tell she was going to hate him.
Aww, don’t be ashamed, Cami. You can’t help being from a swampy gangland. Like I said, nothing groundbreaking, but progress is progress!
—————-
Now playing: Arcade Fire – Black Mirror
via FoxyTunes
Tattooed women are notorious eye-humpers. I’m sure she’s already mentally undressed Rufus several times over ; )
I always used to write my papers that way in school. They always came out much better than the ones where I started and the beginning and eneded at the end. I’d like to try that with a novel. Let me know how it works out.
Cool excerpt.
Thing is…the boring nuts & bolts crap is just as exciting to me as the other stuff
“There are two main locations for the first part, so I’m writing the first location up to the point where it intersects with the plot from the second (which isn’t all that far, in the grand scheme), and then going back and filling in the second so I can adjust for pace and the like”…I’m glad you’re an organized person, Katey!
I loved the excerpt as well. Very Cool!
Nat, aren’t we just? I figure if you and I would’ve, she certainly would!
Jeremy, sounds good man– thanks for that! I usually wrote my papers in order because I’d arrange all my post-its on themed single sheets, and just go through it straight up.
Wish it worked that way with fiction. Hmm, wait, there’s an idea…
Mary, me too. But you know, I try and have mercy on occasion.
Alan, I’m freakishly organized about some things, and pathetically disorganized about others. But on this one, at least I almost have my shit together. Thanks!
I’d love to write something out of order but haven’t been able to manage it yet.
How do you do this? (i.e., finish a book and write another one?)
I can’t seem to find the motivation to write anything longer than 5K right now, and even that was a stretch.
I am with Aaron, how do you do it?
Cate, I wrote some scenes for the last book out of order, and knitting it together kind of sucked. I don’t think I could do it TOO out of order again after that, but doing one thread then another… I don’t know. I’m scared!
Aaron and Jamie, I would ask y’all the same– how do you manage all these brilliant shorts? If I turn out five shorts in a given year I’m singing hallelujah. And only three of them will probably be worth subbing anywhere :/
I have to really be stern with myself not to turn things into novel ideas. The idea of longterm character development seduces the fuck out of me. I have several still waiting, probably because I only wrote one last year, but developed a bunch. I’m pretty much just lining them up and knocking them down now– once I get to know the characters well enough that they refused to be silenced.
Metaphorically speaking. (Or am I…? Oooh!)