The Fascination of What's Difficult
Oct. 2nd, 2005 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbStream of thought writing on progress of maybe-novel:
The third incarnation of Dreamdark has passed 12000 words. This is sort of good, since the backing and grounding stuff I need to frontload it with will take between 3000 and 5000 words. Which means for the point I'm at in the narative I'll have between 15000 and 17000 words (only I won't front the work until I'm finished the goddamned thing). Which is, I suppose, entirely reasonable for where I want to be at this point in a 150,000 word novel.
::stares at novel::
::hates novel::
I don't really hate it, I suppose (yes we does, precious, nasty novelses, we hates them - ahem). I'm trying to keep track of all the stuff that should be going on, and feeling rather like my brain is about to burst. My characters are uniformly refusing to front up and talk to me about their motivations, my villain adamantly refuses to be villainous - will he give me good conflict? No, he wants to play the good guy and act as a love interest of the putrid soppy kind - and my political intrigue is growing more layers every time I look around (reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Mary Queen of Scots at the moment, that might have something to do with it).
Tonight one of my main characters volunteered a startling piece of information about her motivations - startling because up until now, we've been talking opaque when we've been talking characters.
I got 720 words tonight. More than yesterday, at least, and about equal with Thursday and Friday. Why am I stopping to write this? Well, I need to change viewpoint, and I'm not sure what happens next.
I made out an outline, you know. Right about when Dreamdark version the second decided to roll over and play dead at 18000 words (too many dead ends. not enough motivation). But knowing a general outline of What Happens isn't much help when I need to know what my third viewpoint character is going to be doing in the next scene, and why she'll be doing it even more than what.
I have two pages pinned up on the wall beside my desk, containing various scraps of distilled writing advice. I'm looking at one right now:
Action without Motivation is Not Plot, it's a Chicken with its Head Cut Off
::pokes at character::
::looks for motivation::
I need motive. I need rhyme. I need, for pity's sake, some reason here.
Right. I've got that out of the way. Now I'll go and look for some.
The third incarnation of Dreamdark has passed 12000 words. This is sort of good, since the backing and grounding stuff I need to frontload it with will take between 3000 and 5000 words. Which means for the point I'm at in the narative I'll have between 15000 and 17000 words (only I won't front the work until I'm finished the goddamned thing). Which is, I suppose, entirely reasonable for where I want to be at this point in a 150,000 word novel.
::stares at novel::
::hates novel::
I don't really hate it, I suppose (yes we does, precious, nasty novelses, we hates them - ahem). I'm trying to keep track of all the stuff that should be going on, and feeling rather like my brain is about to burst. My characters are uniformly refusing to front up and talk to me about their motivations, my villain adamantly refuses to be villainous - will he give me good conflict? No, he wants to play the good guy and act as a love interest of the putrid soppy kind - and my political intrigue is growing more layers every time I look around (reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Mary Queen of Scots at the moment, that might have something to do with it).
Tonight one of my main characters volunteered a startling piece of information about her motivations - startling because up until now, we've been talking opaque when we've been talking characters.
I got 720 words tonight. More than yesterday, at least, and about equal with Thursday and Friday. Why am I stopping to write this? Well, I need to change viewpoint, and I'm not sure what happens next.
I made out an outline, you know. Right about when Dreamdark version the second decided to roll over and play dead at 18000 words (too many dead ends. not enough motivation). But knowing a general outline of What Happens isn't much help when I need to know what my third viewpoint character is going to be doing in the next scene, and why she'll be doing it even more than what.
I have two pages pinned up on the wall beside my desk, containing various scraps of distilled writing advice. I'm looking at one right now:
Action without Motivation is Not Plot, it's a Chicken with its Head Cut Off
::pokes at character::
::looks for motivation::
I need motive. I need rhyme. I need, for pity's sake, some reason here.
Right. I've got that out of the way. Now I'll go and look for some.
