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.

Opinion poll of the day: Circle takes place in a world that’s not our own, but kind of like it. I’ve long thought about how to better distinguish it. I think soon I’m going to draw up a map of more than just a small area of islands, name everything, and then start dropping names in a later revision. I think I’ll also add a bit of steampunk technology–not a whole lot, because I still want it to be kind of a low-tech world, but heck, they have running bathwater. (That’s right, I do like my characters clean.)

Given this, my question to anyone reading this is: Would my using the Earth system of times and dates be confusing? I’ve already used days of the week and ten minutes ago I referenced the month of August. The year I chose was random–I typed a “1″ and then three random numbers (1538, turns out), but would that throw you off considering that their technological level is closer to the early 1700s?

Filed under: Technique, The Circle of Many Faces, WIPs by Eliza |