mystified triangles with cirular patterns

(copied from OD)

Ugh. Hello 5 am. So good to see you. Again. *head.desk*.

I'm exhausted so this will be short. Technically I slept most of the day but it wasn't very restful sleep, and I've been getting very little sleep this past week. Anyway, just did some writing. Thought I should since somebody was hint hinting for me to get around to it. He's right, I haven't been writing lately. I needed to work on that page count. Well, I did it. Not a fantastic page count, but I'm too lazy right now to go turn on the other computer and transfer files over from it to Lenore, or from Lenore to it. See, I'm writing on Lenore, but I've got a scene I cut saved on a document on the other computer, and I need that scene. I decided I'm going to write the council scene after all because this isn't a big enough chapter otherwise, and I think the Big Thing that's going on needs to carry over through both, and I really do want to get the powerplay between the characters out there. Plus, it feels like I'm skipping too much if I skip that scene.

I just have to get through this council meeting and then it will be smooth sailing from there. By that I mean mostly editing, which I can do without being inspired. After that I've got mostly action-oriented scenes, or at least scenes that make me want to write rather than scenes that drive me crazy. I'm not good at writing politics. Heh. Anyway, gonna go to sleep, then probably spend tomorrow writing or something. I hope. Just thought I'd give a quick update since it's been a few days. Wish me luck on getting back into writing again =)

poking your words

I'm exhausted right now. Haven't been getting much sleep at night these days. It's too bad - I wish I would get more. This time, I haven't even been staying up late writing. I haven't really done any writing this past few days, maybe week. It's been a while since I've written. I'm back on my laptop now, so I really shouldn't have any excuse.

I think it's easier for me to write something from scratch than it is for me to rewrite something. I've had this rewrite scene looming over my head for a while, and I wasn't sure how to write it without dropping a few pages of worldbuilding and following it up with a scene that only partially relates to the plot. However, I needed to have something to cut up what I was doing, because otherwise it wouldn't be flowing right. I've now got an idea that works to give some importance to the scene, but this idea could actually be implemented a number of ways, and I think I'm going to replace this rewrite scene with this new scene.

Essentially - someone tried to assassinate my main character. He was a friend of her family, and someone she'd known for a long time. He isn't talking, but I think what I'm going to have happen is...he tried to tell someone but another person somehow made it so he can't. I'll have to work on that - what happened, break his jaw? Rip his throat out? These characters can heal an unimaginable amount of damage because they don't die unless they want to, which usually means that extreme things like stabbing them through the heart, poisoning them, etc. can kill them, but this character is trying to stay alive to save his family. I'm not sure how exactly to make this work. It has to be something dramatic that can be seen as an accident - "Oops, I didn't know he was about to talk...I was moving too fast to stop myself..." It has to be able to shut the character up for enough time for more threats to be whispered in his ear.

Why are they trying to get him to talk while simultaneously trying to get him to keep quiet? The person who kidnapped his family and forced him to try to assassinate my MC is actually someone who works in the castle and has enough power to get in on the torture sessions.

I was going to have Vayira go to a council meeting that would cover certain issues in the country - and would show the various tensions between the characters - but I think that the scene doesn't do enough; I'd need it to do more, and it would be very diffiicult to bring up the attempted assassin when they're supposed to be discussing other things. I'd have a window of opportunity that would stretch after the worldbuilding and before the council meeting started.

However, if I make a scene out of the dinner/lounging around that comes before, then I can do it. The important chars will all be running around trying to deal with what's going on with the attempted assassin, Vayira will be on edge and nervous and trying to figure out what's going on while flittering amongst the council members, Tai will be there to offer perspective and we'll get to flesh out his character a bit by seeing how he does in front of a large group of very important strangers...

So, yes. I also think that scene will be a lot more fun, because it's easier to stay in Vayira's head when she's at the centre of the game. It's harder when she's sort of watching what other people are doing, only partially participating because she's mostly supposed to be there in training for when she becomes queen. I also don't want to take her away from Tai just yet. I think that that has to be done very carefully or it will undermind what I'm trying to do with the two of them.

So, all in all, scene change idea is a good idea. Imma go work on it now, if I don't fall asleep first. However, before that - dishes. I needs must do them. That's what happens when you cook; you end up with dishes =)

Ze world of writing

Hello ladies and gentlemen, cows and humans, multipandimensional light beings and 3D slugs of all subspecies. I'm back. Sorry - I've been so into writing lately that by the time I get around to updating blogs, it's just easier to update Facebook and opendiary. Facebook is quick, and OD at least has readers. So I tend to forget about Blogspot.

News update:

Lenore, my beautiful laptop, started crashing a while ago. I finally sent her off to the Gateway Repair Centre for some TLC at the Computer Spa they've got there. She's feeling much better now, and is on her way home. In the meantime, I've been using an old iMac that my paternal grandmother left my father when she died. He gave it to my brother to use and it's just been sitting there. My brother and I (just today) upgraded the RAM and the OS to 2GB, and to Snow Leopard (that means, 2GB of RAM and Snow Leopard Operating System).

Having this iMac around to use is good news, because I've done quite a bit of writing on it. I was also doing quite a bit of writing on Lenore, but I really do like this computer for writing. I think I'm going to start storing all of my files on my external hard drive, and just go between the two computers...but spend most of my writing time on this iMac.

"So, Kimbar, how has the writing been going...?" you ask.

"Fantastically!" I answer, and then I delve into a deep long overview of how exactly the writing has been going.

At first, I was able to take the new ideas I had for TTAV (the most important book in my life, that I've written and rewritten for almost a decade) and apply them right away. I got 111 pages into the story (to be fair, I started at page 55 and there were a few pages of edited copypasta) before I made a stupid mistake while writing an update on the writing on OD.

See, TTAV isn't just a plot and some characters to me. It's also a feel. Now, I was okay with the plot, and the characters were coming out perfectly, but the feel was off. It was heavy fantasy, light sci-fi. I want it to be closer to a mix of both. At least, I want the fantasy to really feel like it takes place on an alien planet that's got a strange mix of technological advancement and non-technological-advancement. Yes, that makes sense - in my world anyway.

I was writing, "If I decide later that I really don't like the plot because it feels wrong, I can always mix and match the old version and this new version. I just have to take the beginning and end from the new version and stick the old version, edited, in the middle."

Oops. My brain said, "Hey! That's a good idea! Let's do that."

And then I started getting a lot more ideas that required a different plot. Because I wrote a stupid entry. Ugh. One of these days, I will learn not to let my brain run away with itself.

Anyway, I decided not to think about it for a couple of days, and I did other things while not writing and not thinking about it. Then I decided that I had to sit down and figure out what the book was supposed to look like. I needed a full chapter outline. So I sat down with sticky notes and outlined what happens in the first eight or nine chapters, which I already know about (since I'm using the early beginning of the new version and the later beginning of the old version, with some tweaks). After that, I let my mind go and come up with the scenes as they would come. I managed to get a thirty-some-odd chapter outline, on green sticky notes that my dearest Ninja Writer got for me last year for my birthday present/NaNoWriMo Survival Kit (my birthday is October 30th, and the National Novel Writing Month is in November). The next day, I sat down and edited the first four chapters to cut out the preparations I'd set up for the now-obsolete plotline I was intending to use. The next day, I completed that.

I'm now in the process of writing in the new scenes that have to take place and editing other scenes to make them compatible with the new plot. It's a long, tedious process, but I'm confident that it will go well, and that the whole book will be written by the end of summer. I'm actually aiming for the end of this month, but if that's not enough time, then I'll tack on an extra month too. I've already got almost 100 pages written, and most of what I have to do right now is editing/rewriting.

Anyway, wish me luck! I'm off to talk to my writer friend and watch a movie, and when that's done Imma write. Ta!