I have trouble with names–especially for minor characters that only show up for a few scenes, but who still need to be named. I’ve used many resources to come up with these generic names, but today I found one that I’ve long ignored:

My spam folder.

Here are some of the gems in the “sender” column:

• Herschel Duarte
• Wentzlaff Daughtry
• Jorg Knickerbacker (my personal favorite)
• Althea Cameron
• Brabazon Matar
• Efren Welch
• Gregorio Ferris
• Golabek Shimsky
• Parag Juchinsky
• Zsolt Haseltine
• Terheggen Ruzbasan
• Fabiano Uziel

Obviously, I need to look in there more. And those are just names culled from the first three pages (I usually let the spam folder auto-clean itself. Now I have a use for those messages!).

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Time to check in.

Well, my (personally) bad news is that I didn’t hit 20k words for February. I’m using my “I blame the injury” card. Not that that wins me a free pass, but I’m using the excuse now. Which means no using it for March.

My good news is that I am now the owner of a shiny new pink laptop, with which I can write while NOT sitting at my desk, which I am tired of sitting at due to the whole pretty much having to sit there for two months (to the day!) and counting. I’ve already been very productive.

I realized the other day when I put the finishing touches on a chapter of Circle of Many Faces that I think I’m officially done with the “beginning” of the book. When I think about it, that’s the place where I struggle the most–having to set up all the characters, events, and making sure foreshadowing is in place. That, and I want the reader (and me, the writer) to spend a little bit of time with all the characters before all the secrets come out, because what fun is a secret if you don’t let it stew a little?

Even though page count is relative, I’m also really happy because I think I’m going to hit page 100 today or tomorrow.

Latest “opinion poll” below the fold. (more…)

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Having just received some more great crit from a crit buddy *waves* there’s a word on my mind. I do tend to say people “jump” in surprise a lot. I think it’s a valid word, but I probably do need to vary it.

The problem is I’m not exactly sure what other words I can use. I don’t like “flinched” in situations of surprise, that’s more of a sick shock/pain word to me. Does anyone have any good suggestions? This is definitely a weakness of mine.

On the flipside, I’ve had critiques before from others that question that usage of the word “jump” altogether. I thought it was fairly well-known. Any comments on that?

My monthly goals are coming along nicely; I only need to actually update my word bars. I need to think of a better system of tracking my total words. Or at least remember to write it down every time after I work.

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I did some freewriting for Circle the other day, mostly to play around with some of the characters that I can’t play around with while stuck on the important first chapter.

Now I can’t wait to write some of their chapters… I’ve had a thought, now, and I would like to write two very sensual, but contrasted chapters right next to each other. Lia and Sam are pretty crazy about each other, all things considered, but their perspectives are still radically different. I don’t want to switch POV scenes around too often; I usually stick to chapters, but I think it could be really interesting to see how she feels before, how he feels after, then how she feels afterwards, after the reader has been disconnected from her emotions for awhile, plus I think she would have… not less inner turmoil, but a calmer one.

Gotta keep writing. I really need to commit myself to a daily wordcount goal again, or at least a weekly chapter goal.

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There are only so many ways to talk about magic in a fantasy realm. You can write “magic,” or “magick,” but they feel so overused to me. I think in Rainbow Covey I may start using “magery” or something like that. Perhaps Asher will still refer to it as “magic,” as he comes from the undeveloped society that still uses words like that, which are thought to be fanciful, the stuff of fairy stories in the outside world.

I keep saying I will finish chapter seven, I will finish, and then not finishing. Well, today’s the day. It has to be, otherwise I’ll go crazy. That and I’m very excited for the next chapter.

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I’m terrible at outlining. I can never outline an entire story at once. Sure, I come in knowing the beginning and ending, but the story shifts dynamically in my head every time I think of a new plot twist or character facet, and needless to say things change an awful lot. Usually I write using a method I labeled “Marathon-style,” though that’s just a personal label and many people do it… I know where I’m going, I know which “checkpoints” I have to hit, but I can do whatever I like in-between, because even though it’s a marathon, it’s not a race.

I’m on a transition chapter in Rainbow Covey, so while I had a vague idea of what was going to go on, I needed to pound out all the important details. I wasn’t sure how many chapters the arc would take, so I just wrote a paragraph detailing what goes on. Then I split up the paragraph into chunks. Not all of them were one-sentence, I tried to do it by pieces that fit together well to form climactic arcs, so while small details are important, they don’t make an entire chapter by themselves. Once I figured that out, I wrote some slightly more detailed (but not VERY detailed, because if I outline that closely, I won’t want to write it) summaries for each chapters.

Turns out I’ll probably need about four chapters to do the next arc. They’ll be packed, which is good, but if I need an action break I’ll add a fifth and space out some events. Of course, I might think of something else and need more chapters, but I’ll hope that this plan sticks.

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