Novella Stats:
| Words Today | 159 |
| Words Total | 33,904 |
Short Story Stats:
| Written | 1 |
| Submitted | 0 |
| In Circulation | 0 |
| Rejected | 0 |
| Sold | 0 |
Thursday,
February 15, 2007
It's 24.5 °F in Dallas
Allow me to repeat that. 24.5 fracking degrees F. I'm sitting
here in what's normally an overheated office, my leather jacket on because
I'm chilly otherwise, and looking outside at the occasional flake of snow drifting
by.
Did someone transplant Dallas to the Northeast last night and not tell us? Look, I'm sorry you're getting hammered by snow and ice, but sheesh.
Stealth Plot Attack
So there I was in bed last night, tuckered out from the cold
of the day, having completed editing two chapters of the novella project and
my daily wordcount for Undercover Godmother, and ready to sleep the sleep of
the righteous writer.
Of course, because my backbrain hates me, it reminds me that the Sword and Sorceress submission period is approaching, and do I have anything in mind for it? Because, by golly, it does, and promptly presents an idea based on the novella (the further adventures, so to speak) which suddenly turns into a CSI episode with swords and sorcery (oh, come on -- tell me you wouldn't want to see Nick and Warrick with sabres and Grissom poring over a grimoire while muttering, "Okay, what if we try the Exposure of Things Invisible spell...").
It's a cool concept. And it could work after I do a little research to fill in the blanks. And I'm rather fond of these characters, so I'm happy to see them in another setting. BUT NOT WHEN I'M TRYING TO SLEEP.
Oy...
Writing Methods
As I'm editing the novella, I'm noticing something
interesting about my writing methods. Mt first drafts seem to be mainly dialogue,
because I love writing dialogue, with some sketchy physical details thrown
in more as a reminder to me of what was supposed to happen at a specific
point than as an actual part of the story.
I know this sounds idiotic, but that made me feel guilty for the longest time, because I was obviously doing something wrong by focusing on dialogue and letting the action sequences and physical descriptions slide -- I was supposed to include them all as I wrote the story, right? Bad writer, NO new laptop! Thankfully, something clicked at some point and I realized that getting the words on the page any way I could was the important thing -- I could always add action and descriptions in the edit.
Which is what I'm doing. Not only is it working well, but by adding the descriptions and action sequences now as opposed to when the first draft was being written, I'm finding all kinds of places to insert little plot hints that will allow the observant reader to figure out what's going on ever so slightly before the big reveal. It's kind of like finishing a plain pine table, then going back with the chisels and gouges to add curliques, turned legs and other, more intricate ornamentation.
This is cool.
One Final ARRGH!
Backbrain keeps throwing backstory for the S&S piece at me. Backstory that won't even be USED in this piece. I think the damn thing wants me to turn it into a series.
*whimper*
Oh, dear Lord, I just thought of the perfect way to describe this series.
"She's a Queen's Own Sabre with a filthy sense of humor, he's an Onyx Order cleric with an addiction to sarcasm -- they fight crime!"
Help me?