Dreadmire update
As of today, I am officially moving my target word count to 60K. Longer would be even better, but I believe in aiming for reasonable goals. The work is going well enough that I think I'll hit 60K.
I'm dithering over the chapter after they leave the elf village. This is how it's currently structured:
a) Angiss has another vision of Wynter.
b) When he wakes up, Tam and Kance fight over the Quest.
c) Alesia wakes up from a nightmare and cuddles with Kancethedrus.
d) They are all awakened to fight the ghoul.
e) They are captured by the Evile.
It could happen this way:
a) Alesia wakes up from a nightmare and cuddles with Kancethedrus.
b) They are all awakened to fight the ghoul.
c) Time passes. Angiss has another vision of Wynter.
d) When he wakes up, Tam and Kance fight over the Quest.
e) They are captured by the Evile.
I rather like the second structure better. For one thing, it gives more passage of time so everything doesn't happen at once.. It puts the encounter between Alesia and Kance before the fight, underscoring that Kance is getting testy with Tam for more reasons than Tam's obsessiveness and builds up to their confrontation in Chapter Ten. Also it puts more space between the fight with the ghoul and with the Evile. As it is, the two basically meld into one big fight, which doesn't make much sense. Pretty much I wrote it that way because after writing the fight with the ghoul, I didn't feel like fighting the Evile too, so I basically wrote, "Stuff happened and they lost. End chapter." If I've got battle fatigue, so does the reader.
On the other hand, that means I have to rewrite the damn chapter and I'm running out of time. I've never missed a deadline yet and I don't intend to start with this book. Dither dither dither. Also, that means beefing up the battle with the Evile. Time crunches on.
There's also the passingly important fact that I'm totally wiped. Tomorrow afternoon will be some serious swamping. I want it done by Thanksgiving so I at least have a day or two to fix the new scenes before I send it to the publisher.
Today's amusing typos:
• "Alesia stepped out of the cage." Um, that was supposed to be "cave."
• "They sat that way for a while, curled in the fire." Oooh, burn.
ME: The swamp is love.*
PATRICK: Not if it doesn't have a giant robot powered by monkeys riding bicycles in it!
ME: You are seriously disturbed, Patrick my dear.
PATRICK: A giant robot powered by bicycle-riding monkeys is completely plausible. That could totally happen.
ME: In a swamp. Notice the problem with bicycles. SWAMP.
PATRICK: The bicycles are inside the robot, powering the mighty robot legs. Unless it springs a leak they are perfectly safe.
ME: Until they sink into the muck!
...
ME: Another one! "They sat that way for a while, curled in the fire." Ouch!
PATRICK: "And then a giant monkey-powered robot stepped on them. The End."
The Patrick in question, by the way, is Patrick Sweeney, owner of Firefly Games and deputy executive director of the Game Publishers Association. He is a very cool guy and good friend. He is not my publisher. Otherwise I'd be writing about a giant monkey-powered robot. Inexplicably in a swamp.
* This came from a bit of philosophical subtext running through my head this evening. More on this when I have brains again.
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43,156 / 60,000 (71.9%) |
I'm dithering over the chapter after they leave the elf village. This is how it's currently structured:
a) Angiss has another vision of Wynter.
b) When he wakes up, Tam and Kance fight over the Quest.
c) Alesia wakes up from a nightmare and cuddles with Kancethedrus.
d) They are all awakened to fight the ghoul.
e) They are captured by the Evile.
It could happen this way:
a) Alesia wakes up from a nightmare and cuddles with Kancethedrus.
b) They are all awakened to fight the ghoul.
c) Time passes. Angiss has another vision of Wynter.
d) When he wakes up, Tam and Kance fight over the Quest.
e) They are captured by the Evile.
I rather like the second structure better. For one thing, it gives more passage of time so everything doesn't happen at once.. It puts the encounter between Alesia and Kance before the fight, underscoring that Kance is getting testy with Tam for more reasons than Tam's obsessiveness and builds up to their confrontation in Chapter Ten. Also it puts more space between the fight with the ghoul and with the Evile. As it is, the two basically meld into one big fight, which doesn't make much sense. Pretty much I wrote it that way because after writing the fight with the ghoul, I didn't feel like fighting the Evile too, so I basically wrote, "Stuff happened and they lost. End chapter." If I've got battle fatigue, so does the reader.
On the other hand, that means I have to rewrite the damn chapter and I'm running out of time. I've never missed a deadline yet and I don't intend to start with this book. Dither dither dither. Also, that means beefing up the battle with the Evile. Time crunches on.
There's also the passingly important fact that I'm totally wiped. Tomorrow afternoon will be some serious swamping. I want it done by Thanksgiving so I at least have a day or two to fix the new scenes before I send it to the publisher.
Today's amusing typos:
• "Alesia stepped out of the cage." Um, that was supposed to be "cave."
• "They sat that way for a while, curled in the fire." Oooh, burn.
ME: The swamp is love.*
PATRICK: Not if it doesn't have a giant robot powered by monkeys riding bicycles in it!
ME: You are seriously disturbed, Patrick my dear.
PATRICK: A giant robot powered by bicycle-riding monkeys is completely plausible. That could totally happen.
ME: In a swamp. Notice the problem with bicycles. SWAMP.
PATRICK: The bicycles are inside the robot, powering the mighty robot legs. Unless it springs a leak they are perfectly safe.
ME: Until they sink into the muck!
...
ME: Another one! "They sat that way for a while, curled in the fire." Ouch!
PATRICK: "And then a giant monkey-powered robot stepped on them. The End."
The Patrick in question, by the way, is Patrick Sweeney, owner of Firefly Games and deputy executive director of the Game Publishers Association. He is a very cool guy and good friend. He is not my publisher. Otherwise I'd be writing about a giant monkey-powered robot. Inexplicably in a swamp.
* This came from a bit of philosophical subtext running through my head this evening. More on this when I have brains again.
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