And already one character wandered into it who wasn't planned at all. But she is going to be necessary to set up the sequel and it is a fun wrench to throw into the works. I have one more rough scene in my head and then will probably spend the weekend just plotting out the rest of the story, power through the draft, take a break from the series as a whole and then begin the edits to Ghoulish Happenings.
I've never looked forward to editing before, and never been very good at it. The Rites of Exorcism rewrite that I began last year languishes at 25K but working on this story has given me a few ideas toward that one. I also have Boy & Fox to get back to, assuming I can figure out what the story is really about -- I may shrink it down and end up with a novella. The jury remains out. I also have a trilogy of books -- The Dogs of War -- of which 1.2 books are written in various drafts and the entire series plotted out.
And finally, there is the weird story whose nature is still puzzling me, which I need to get back to adding scenes to. As such, my goal for the rest of this year is, barring work on the Ghoulish series, to revisit, fix and remake those stories languishing on my hard drive rather than dive into something 'new'. New is easy for me, as nanowrimo proves time and time again. But to fix something that didn't work, or make something work better, is definitely more of a challenge. I figure I'll grow more as a writer by fixing such things than by flinging myself into writing new things.
Updates as warranted, but expect a fair bit of silence from this end. Or none at all, depending on how bad (or good!) things get.
ooooh! *wrench* characters are the best :D
ReplyDeleteI'm currently on the ferry, enjoying the fabulous dial-up-speed-wi-fi (seriously, it's almost that bad...), with the car loaded down, pets crammed (somewhere?) in there, on my way to Vancouver.
Happy Hallmark-shareholders-appreciation Day!
Funny how a day plastered in the colour red, is celebrated by in-the-black earnings ;)
yeah, yeah, I have the right to be cynical today ;)
I think everyone should be cynical on Valentine's Day myself :)
DeleteBut yes: the fun wrench character has led to the fact that magicians have duels and that one will be held because of her, as well as making the healing family of magicians awesomely creepy. Writing a sequel before editing a first novel is good for things like this, since now I can put references to duels in the first.
sounds awesome, Alcar!
Deleteplease tell me they are duels to the death!!!
'It is not, strictly speaking, illegal to kill in a duel but considered very bad form.'
DeleteSo, alas, not many. The basic concept is that the magical world 'runs' on owing favours and debts, and if you owe someone a favour and they say: "Hey, go kill this person" then you DO need to try and probably -- if you fail -- can't rat out the person you owed the favour to. So a duel between two parties annuls favours, very loosely speaking.
It's mostly really a pissing contest since only basic magic is used and it's more: "Here is who I am. Here is who my friends and family are if I might die. What do YOU have to match that with?" and getting the other party to surrender without having to start bringing nasty magics into the fight.
.... Wray will, logically, equate it with professional wrestling though it is far more dangerous. Or can be.
Or, put better, the point of duels is information extraction. If you want to kill someone, you just kill 'em. A nicely cheery thought for me to go to sleep on.
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