I’m working on Rainbow Covey chapter 7, which has killed me multiple times. I need a break in the action from 6 and the [planned] intrigue of 8, but this middle bit is infuriating. They talk about things that are practical, but I can’t figure out how to make it interesting. I’ll just have to let the crit group tear it up and see what sort of suggestions I get.

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Current word count: 2,936
Today’s word count: 1,600

There is a character in Circle of Many Faces who I feel needs to be there, but whom I’ve always had trouble writing. The problem is that she’s the point of view character in the opening chapter (with some of the others making appearances), so obviously she’s important.

This morning I realized that Charlotte is essentially a PTSD sufferer, in a time and universe that wouldn’t recognize the disease. Of course, once she leaves her comfortable colonial existence for the darker waters of Ciarta Island, there may be “healers” more willing to help her cope with her demons. A little internet research to make sure I’m not misrepresenting any symptoms (I wasn’t in particular, but it’s good to know now so I can reign the description in) and I’m good to go. Of course, I wonder if I’ll be breaking any rules by solving the problem through fantastic means, since regular counselors and psychologists don’t exist in her world.

She needs desperately to have a character arc worked out for her; the reason she never did was I wrote the original story during Nanowrimo, and didn’t have time to think about it while boosting my wordcount.

Filed under: The Circle of Many Faces by Eliza | No Comments »

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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Now that I’ve mostly got the blog running the way I want it to, I can replace the first post with something more appropriate. Of course, I find myself with little to say, as I still need to set up some more things on my sidebar for works-in-progress and things like that. I’d also like to set up some extra site pages, but I’m still having trouble looping them through WordPress in a manner I’d like, so those get to wait until I figure out how. (Not that I haven’t found one way to do it–I just want to do it differently.) Also will work on putting the posts through to LiveJournal, but again–later.

Anyhow, if you’re reading this right now, you’re probably a friend or acquaintance of mine, which is cool. If not, hi, I’m Eliza, and I want to be a writer. I like to make things up, so about everything I write falls into the SF genre, leaning towards fantasy and sometimes horror. I have more raw ideas than I know what to do with, but few have made it into being full-fledged ideas with coherent plots and things like that.

This is my blog to talk about the craft, my stories and their mechanics, and possibly the process of publication (keeping my fingers crossed–figuratively speaking, of course, as it’d be hard to type otherwise). Welcome.

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