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writing. bah.
Nov. 7th, 2004 05:21 pmNaNo totals: 10,000 as of last night -- I reached my goal! -- and 10,200 as of right now.
I'm still not out of the first chapter! *wails* This is going to end up as a doorstopper, which is exactly what I don't want!
Well, maybe 'chapter' isn't quite the right word. Section, perhaps? That could work. I feel better if I look at it that way -- sections can be any length, in my mind, whereas I mentally put limits on chapter length and have certain expectations of how many chapter must be in a novel, minimum. I have no such requirements for sections.
Anyway, this section is entirely about set-up: introduce the characters, introduce the godawful mess they're either involved in or soon to be involved in, and maneuver them to meet in section 2. Looking at it that way, it's going quite well. I've done Talin and Bren, given Talin the sword, and shoved him into finally making a decision to leave home (skipping over some of the decision-making process, which I may go back later to fill in). Ranna and her court have been introduced, they've argued about political and military problems (thus partially explaining them to the readers), and now Ranna's mucking around doing vaguely unethical things that conveniently show us around her city and introduce a few more characters -- in this case, Raidda and Garin.
I am of two minds about Raidda. See, originally I had this massively complicated backstory for her, but I'm thinking I may ditch that and just leave her more or less as she appears, without all the dark secrets. It will lend more realism, I think. In that case, however, I might change her name, because her current name exists for backstory purposes. Not that I dislike it, per se, but I like her 'concealed' name, Arhedden, better. However, I don't think Arhedden fits as well with the character's outward position.
Oh, bother it all. This is all largely irrelevant anyway, and it makes little to no sense unless you can read my mind or spy on my computer files. So I'll stop here.
I'm still not out of the first chapter! *wails* This is going to end up as a doorstopper, which is exactly what I don't want!
Well, maybe 'chapter' isn't quite the right word. Section, perhaps? That could work. I feel better if I look at it that way -- sections can be any length, in my mind, whereas I mentally put limits on chapter length and have certain expectations of how many chapter must be in a novel, minimum. I have no such requirements for sections.
Anyway, this section is entirely about set-up: introduce the characters, introduce the godawful mess they're either involved in or soon to be involved in, and maneuver them to meet in section 2. Looking at it that way, it's going quite well. I've done Talin and Bren, given Talin the sword, and shoved him into finally making a decision to leave home (skipping over some of the decision-making process, which I may go back later to fill in). Ranna and her court have been introduced, they've argued about political and military problems (thus partially explaining them to the readers), and now Ranna's mucking around doing vaguely unethical things that conveniently show us around her city and introduce a few more characters -- in this case, Raidda and Garin.
I am of two minds about Raidda. See, originally I had this massively complicated backstory for her, but I'm thinking I may ditch that and just leave her more or less as she appears, without all the dark secrets. It will lend more realism, I think. In that case, however, I might change her name, because her current name exists for backstory purposes. Not that I dislike it, per se, but I like her 'concealed' name, Arhedden, better. However, I don't think Arhedden fits as well with the character's outward position.
Oh, bother it all. This is all largely irrelevant anyway, and it makes little to no sense unless you can read my mind or spy on my computer files. So I'll stop here.
