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hawkwing_lbSo I have 26K on the damned b*&k, and after some good progress, I stalled out yesterday.
I was in the middle of a scene with my third protag - Ramon Bredon, a watch investigator with aristocratic connections - having been called to his second body in a graveyard in what, three days? And it occured to me that this scene had no point. We've already had discovery-of-body from the point of view of one of my other protags, so whyfor are we doing this again?
Then it occured to me that I've been short-changing Ramon, haven't I? Guy walks into the book bare of baggage, and everyone he meets he meets for the first time. He's got nothing ongoing, no stress, no trauma, no damage. And the guy's one of only, what, ten investigators in the whole city? He's been doing the job for six, eight years at this point?
Guy should at least have a couple more cases ongoing, if not a bad case of overwork. He should have friends, colleagues, enemies, office politics, strained relations with his family...
This is not, fortunately, a problem without a solution. I won't have to scrap most of Ramon's POV segments so far: mostly what I have to do is figure out his background/ongoing stuff and add to the segments.
Okay. I have established certain of the main political players: the Cavillards, the Rasteths, the Inekos, the Corstwiths. So far, we know the Cavillards, Rasteths and Corstwiths have potentially dodgy connections - the Inekos might, but they've been almost entirely offscreen.
So, if I throw the investigation of a blackmail ring which appears to maybe have connections to the Rasteth household Ramon's way, and figure that it has a distant connection to the murder cases (which also has connections to a coup plot, but no one else knows that yet) (figure A. Rasteth and R. Corstwith as political allies, and J.T. linked to both of them), that ought to give him much-needed further complications.
Figure also that he is under scrutiny from factions within the Table (Roman-type senate equivalent) for the arraignment of a nobleman's son for murder, and due to his estrangement from his father, one Lord Ioland Bredon, must rely on his mother's brother, Lord Lusan Rasteth, to act as his patron. This could result in things getting tricky, since he's also investigating other Rasteths.
Figure also he has family, call it father, two younger brothers and a younger sister yet living. The middle brother is sturdily conventional, as is the younger sister, but the youngest brother, about twenty, is involved with a group of wild duelling boys who consider themselves poets, visit playhouses, pick fights with actors, and wreck drinking dens. (I may be too much influenced here by the couple chapters of a biography of Christopher Marlowe I skimmed this morning.) So Ramon feels obligated to at least try to keep the boy out of trouble.
And of course his newest investigation is necromancy/sacrilege, which will result in much pressure from above.
I think this is sufficient complications to stir up that particular character's life. My other two characters - well, one is easy to get to talk about her complications. The other might need some re-examining, but not until I have much more b*&k. I'm aiming at 80K by year's end.
In other news, I ran today for the first time in a couple of weeks. Pathetic effort, really, 3x5min intervals with 2mins between them, but still, better than nothing.
I have also started to pack. Packing for eight weeks, on principle, is not so different to packing for one. Except it requires more books. And some DVDs. (I, Spy season one.)
So far, I have:
Karl Schroeder, Son of Suns
Chris Moriarty, Spin State
Mike Carey, Dead Men's Boots
Jack McDevitt, Deepsix
Patrick O'Brien, The Mauritius Command
Graeme Fife, The Terror (non-fic, revolutionary France)
Fontana series of ancient history - The Roman Republic, The Roman Empire, The Later Roman Empire, and a book on Hadrian's Wall, all college reading
My karate kihon and kata guide
I've some e-books on the laptop, and I'll probably bring two more in carry-on: I'm thinking LeGuin's Earthsea and probably Zelazny's Lord of Light, since I've been meaning to get around to reading them since forever.
There are also t-shirts, shorts etc, but really. Not so important as books.
Tomorrow I meet the grandmother, then go to town to get a haircut, some suncream, some aftersun, some soaps, maybe another pair of shorts, and sundry other things. Paracetamol, probably, and lipbalm. Handcream? Face wipes?
Also, print out ticket, photocopy passport. Go climbing, one hopes.
Other stuff. So much to do. Only three and a half days left.
I was in the middle of a scene with my third protag - Ramon Bredon, a watch investigator with aristocratic connections - having been called to his second body in a graveyard in what, three days? And it occured to me that this scene had no point. We've already had discovery-of-body from the point of view of one of my other protags, so whyfor are we doing this again?
Then it occured to me that I've been short-changing Ramon, haven't I? Guy walks into the book bare of baggage, and everyone he meets he meets for the first time. He's got nothing ongoing, no stress, no trauma, no damage. And the guy's one of only, what, ten investigators in the whole city? He's been doing the job for six, eight years at this point?
Guy should at least have a couple more cases ongoing, if not a bad case of overwork. He should have friends, colleagues, enemies, office politics, strained relations with his family...
This is not, fortunately, a problem without a solution. I won't have to scrap most of Ramon's POV segments so far: mostly what I have to do is figure out his background/ongoing stuff and add to the segments.
Okay. I have established certain of the main political players: the Cavillards, the Rasteths, the Inekos, the Corstwiths. So far, we know the Cavillards, Rasteths and Corstwiths have potentially dodgy connections - the Inekos might, but they've been almost entirely offscreen.
So, if I throw the investigation of a blackmail ring which appears to maybe have connections to the Rasteth household Ramon's way, and figure that it has a distant connection to the murder cases (which also has connections to a coup plot, but no one else knows that yet) (figure A. Rasteth and R. Corstwith as political allies, and J.T. linked to both of them), that ought to give him much-needed further complications.
Figure also that he is under scrutiny from factions within the Table (Roman-type senate equivalent) for the arraignment of a nobleman's son for murder, and due to his estrangement from his father, one Lord Ioland Bredon, must rely on his mother's brother, Lord Lusan Rasteth, to act as his patron. This could result in things getting tricky, since he's also investigating other Rasteths.
Figure also he has family, call it father, two younger brothers and a younger sister yet living. The middle brother is sturdily conventional, as is the younger sister, but the youngest brother, about twenty, is involved with a group of wild duelling boys who consider themselves poets, visit playhouses, pick fights with actors, and wreck drinking dens. (I may be too much influenced here by the couple chapters of a biography of Christopher Marlowe I skimmed this morning.) So Ramon feels obligated to at least try to keep the boy out of trouble.
And of course his newest investigation is necromancy/sacrilege, which will result in much pressure from above.
I think this is sufficient complications to stir up that particular character's life. My other two characters - well, one is easy to get to talk about her complications. The other might need some re-examining, but not until I have much more b*&k. I'm aiming at 80K by year's end.
In other news, I ran today for the first time in a couple of weeks. Pathetic effort, really, 3x5min intervals with 2mins between them, but still, better than nothing.
I have also started to pack. Packing for eight weeks, on principle, is not so different to packing for one. Except it requires more books. And some DVDs. (I, Spy season one.)
So far, I have:
Karl Schroeder, Son of Suns
Chris Moriarty, Spin State
Mike Carey, Dead Men's Boots
Jack McDevitt, Deepsix
Patrick O'Brien, The Mauritius Command
Graeme Fife, The Terror (non-fic, revolutionary France)
Fontana series of ancient history - The Roman Republic, The Roman Empire, The Later Roman Empire, and a book on Hadrian's Wall, all college reading
My karate kihon and kata guide
I've some e-books on the laptop, and I'll probably bring two more in carry-on: I'm thinking LeGuin's Earthsea and probably Zelazny's Lord of Light, since I've been meaning to get around to reading them since forever.
There are also t-shirts, shorts etc, but really. Not so important as books.
Tomorrow I meet the grandmother, then go to town to get a haircut, some suncream, some aftersun, some soaps, maybe another pair of shorts, and sundry other things. Paracetamol, probably, and lipbalm. Handcream? Face wipes?
Also, print out ticket, photocopy passport. Go climbing, one hopes.
Other stuff. So much to do. Only three and a half days left.
