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lenora_roseOn Sunday, I got writing done on both Labyrinth and Raising the Storm.
I've been thinking lately that I haven't been stretching myself at all in writing, and working on Labyrinth gives me the feeling that I AM trying something unusual. This is an odd feeling, to say the least, when I'd say RtS is more complicated in terms of everything I'm trying to pull off inside it. Labyrinth is almost a Diana Wynne Jones pastiche - a fun Ya-ish book half inspired by a dream, and half by a single particular visual in the Lord of the Rings movies. It's maybe a little deeper than it first seemed, but not complicated in its world-building.
The difference is simple. I've been working on RtS for a long time now. Strictly speaking, i started writing a novel length project with characters bearing some of these names in junior high - Grade 9, I believe, though i may be wrong and I started late in the prior school year. (The only things still remaining are the fact that it takes place on tropical islands, and the weather plays a part in the plot. There are fractionally more points in common with the first draft I finished, which I think dates to the summer between grades 10 and 11, but not many.) While I'm making a point of doing more of my revisions as rewrites, and while new scenes have cropped up to support the "shortened" version, the story remains one I've lived with a long time. And I'm wading in the middle of the plot bits I've tangled with one way or another for some time, not scraping up to the ending, the part least revised for obvious reasons.
I haven't had to deal with pure raw text for a long while, at least not for anything longer than a short story. Long enough that it feels different. Wrong, even. Unhabitual. Labyrinth is exhilarating, and frightening, because what's coming out is pure first draft. Of course, I can't say I took the plunge in writing without any nets at all. Labyrinth does have a plot summary. Actually, it has about three, though the climax doesn't change *much*. Still, it's enough to lie to myself that I know where I'm going, while simultaneously having at least four options open at every turn. I'd been considering at one point trying my hand at writing as Patricia A. McKillip claims to do; writing the basic plot summary, then adding detail to that, then adding another layer of detail, then starting to building the dialogue and visuals, until the summary grows directly into the novel. I abandoned that thought about the same time I started the second version of the summary.
Okay, I've blabbed enough about these two projects now to warrant this. I hate summaries, and the first is entirely mucked up, but it's enough to give you an idea:
Raising the Storm: The tropical archipelago of Sywela was colonized by humans, who attempted to destroy the native population – selkies, able to take the shape of human and seal alike. The Goddess of the selkies intervened, preventing the slaughter of either side. But though the races live in uneasy truce, the peace is about to break.
Carlye's-Son is a vessel of the Goddess. She has taken away his name, his bonds to family and friends, and warned him that anyone he dares to love will die of it. He is glad to serve her, and to spy on an island ruled by a human sorcerer. Until she bids him to rescue the foreigner, Gaitann, and he learns the heart is not so easily commanded. A maiden raised by forest spirits leads him to question his Goddess's commands. As the war breaks out in earnest, Carlye's-Son has to choose whether to follow the ways he's known all his life, or to be true to himself, when he's barely begun to learn who he really is.
Labyrinth: Heather, a woman from our world, ends up crossing to another in an attempt to rescue her sister (Currently given the place-name Holly, but I probably ought to change that for reasons that should be obvious to anyone from Winnipeg). In this world, full of very odd creatures, she meets a decidedly ragged man, who claims his name is Gerald McSweeney, who offers her his help in reaching the centre. His motives are puzzling -- while he saves her life, he also seems to be hindering her quest. She wins through in spite of him.
And then things get weird. The enemy has been defeated before she ever arrived got there, by a young king who fell in love with Holly. Heather isn't the age she thought she was, and her face is all wrong. Gerald now goes by another name, and doesn't remember their journey together at all. Mirrors reflect things other than what's really there. And now, Heather can't get out.
(So far, I'm still in the world outside.)
____________
Yesterday, after spending much of the day in phone calls for social halls with my maid-of-honour -- and "Sis" -- I'd just settled to read e-mails and listen to a new cd, part of a late gift from my brother 9Amazon didn't deliver until today), when I got a phone call from a friend I hadn't seen in a while; the lovely and charming![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_aura_. She had a spare ticket to Guys and Dolls, since abacchus was working. So suddenly, I was off to a musical.
A lot of fun, actually. I hadn't managed to catch any version of this one before but I knew two songs ("Luck be a Lady" and "Sit down, you're rocking the boat"), which happened to be two of the best performance bits in the show. Alas, both the female leads had very piercing voices, more strong than lovely, which in the case of the ngiht club singer, Adelaide, worked well for her show-pieces, but poorly with her Lament, and her cold was at best unconvincing. The other one, "Sarah", might have come across better if her voice didn't almost clash with that of the actor playing Sky Madison. They still managed to pull off their one song together ("Marry the Man Today"), unexpectedly well, slgihtly marred by the fact that I disagreed with the song on all points. (But you don't go to musicals to get enlightened ideas about romance and relationships. If you did, everybody would HATE MY Fair Lady, which has earned its popularity). But virtually all the men were well picked, all the dance bits excellent, if very busy. All in all, a happy night out. Thank you again,_aura_.
_____________
Today I was bad. I walked home almost specifically to buy more music. I lucked in and found a copy of the CD that jeff gave me that was marred (When I returned it, they didn't have the same one, so I had to "settle for" a new Emmylou Harris!). Now I once again own Sarah Slean's Night Bugs. And the soundtrack to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, which may be better alone than with the movie. (I just started the second run through...) I had to get the sales-guy to help me with that, though, as I checked L and N, then, wondering if they used our accountant's filing system, T (Yes, the accountant at work will file things under "The". I kid you not). I forgot to try C for "Chronicles".
Bad, because just after getting Maddy Prior and the Girls' Bib and Tuck, at last at last, I should be super-happy. Maddy doing mostly-a capella and lightly accompanied work with two other vocalists of near-equal talent... And I AM in love with that, too. Oops. I guess I'll be lsitneing to my chrismtas and bad-girl-after-Christmas acquisitions for a while before I get back to the usual suspects.
Fortunately, to tie this to the discussion over atsartorias, they all make good writing music, with the possible exception of Sarah Slean (And her other album made it into the line-up after a few listens-through, so I may be underestimating this one.) Raising the Storm isn't too picky about what I play, as long as it fits a certain atmosphere and isn't tied to another project, though there are albums it favours over others (yes, I could give a list). I don't yet know what fits Labyrinth best, but so far, nothing has thrown me out of story.
Mmmm. Yeah. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe soundtrack will do nicely.
I've been thinking lately that I haven't been stretching myself at all in writing, and working on Labyrinth gives me the feeling that I AM trying something unusual. This is an odd feeling, to say the least, when I'd say RtS is more complicated in terms of everything I'm trying to pull off inside it. Labyrinth is almost a Diana Wynne Jones pastiche - a fun Ya-ish book half inspired by a dream, and half by a single particular visual in the Lord of the Rings movies. It's maybe a little deeper than it first seemed, but not complicated in its world-building.
The difference is simple. I've been working on RtS for a long time now. Strictly speaking, i started writing a novel length project with characters bearing some of these names in junior high - Grade 9, I believe, though i may be wrong and I started late in the prior school year. (The only things still remaining are the fact that it takes place on tropical islands, and the weather plays a part in the plot. There are fractionally more points in common with the first draft I finished, which I think dates to the summer between grades 10 and 11, but not many.) While I'm making a point of doing more of my revisions as rewrites, and while new scenes have cropped up to support the "shortened" version, the story remains one I've lived with a long time. And I'm wading in the middle of the plot bits I've tangled with one way or another for some time, not scraping up to the ending, the part least revised for obvious reasons.
I haven't had to deal with pure raw text for a long while, at least not for anything longer than a short story. Long enough that it feels different. Wrong, even. Unhabitual. Labyrinth is exhilarating, and frightening, because what's coming out is pure first draft. Of course, I can't say I took the plunge in writing without any nets at all. Labyrinth does have a plot summary. Actually, it has about three, though the climax doesn't change *much*. Still, it's enough to lie to myself that I know where I'm going, while simultaneously having at least four options open at every turn. I'd been considering at one point trying my hand at writing as Patricia A. McKillip claims to do; writing the basic plot summary, then adding detail to that, then adding another layer of detail, then starting to building the dialogue and visuals, until the summary grows directly into the novel. I abandoned that thought about the same time I started the second version of the summary.
Okay, I've blabbed enough about these two projects now to warrant this. I hate summaries, and the first is entirely mucked up, but it's enough to give you an idea:
Raising the Storm: The tropical archipelago of Sywela was colonized by humans, who attempted to destroy the native population – selkies, able to take the shape of human and seal alike. The Goddess of the selkies intervened, preventing the slaughter of either side. But though the races live in uneasy truce, the peace is about to break.
Carlye's-Son is a vessel of the Goddess. She has taken away his name, his bonds to family and friends, and warned him that anyone he dares to love will die of it. He is glad to serve her, and to spy on an island ruled by a human sorcerer. Until she bids him to rescue the foreigner, Gaitann, and he learns the heart is not so easily commanded. A maiden raised by forest spirits leads him to question his Goddess's commands. As the war breaks out in earnest, Carlye's-Son has to choose whether to follow the ways he's known all his life, or to be true to himself, when he's barely begun to learn who he really is.
Labyrinth: Heather, a woman from our world, ends up crossing to another in an attempt to rescue her sister (Currently given the place-name Holly, but I probably ought to change that for reasons that should be obvious to anyone from Winnipeg). In this world, full of very odd creatures, she meets a decidedly ragged man, who claims his name is Gerald McSweeney, who offers her his help in reaching the centre. His motives are puzzling -- while he saves her life, he also seems to be hindering her quest. She wins through in spite of him.
And then things get weird. The enemy has been defeated before she ever arrived got there, by a young king who fell in love with Holly. Heather isn't the age she thought she was, and her face is all wrong. Gerald now goes by another name, and doesn't remember their journey together at all. Mirrors reflect things other than what's really there. And now, Heather can't get out.
(So far, I'm still in the world outside.)
____________
Yesterday, after spending much of the day in phone calls for social halls with my maid-of-honour -- and "Sis" -- I'd just settled to read e-mails and listen to a new cd, part of a late gift from my brother 9Amazon didn't deliver until today), when I got a phone call from a friend I hadn't seen in a while; the lovely and charming
_aura_. She had a spare ticket to Guys and Dolls, since abacchus was working. So suddenly, I was off to a musical.A lot of fun, actually. I hadn't managed to catch any version of this one before but I knew two songs ("Luck be a Lady" and "Sit down, you're rocking the boat"), which happened to be two of the best performance bits in the show. Alas, both the female leads had very piercing voices, more strong than lovely, which in the case of the ngiht club singer, Adelaide, worked well for her show-pieces, but poorly with her Lament, and her cold was at best unconvincing. The other one, "Sarah", might have come across better if her voice didn't almost clash with that of the actor playing Sky Madison. They still managed to pull off their one song together ("Marry the Man Today"), unexpectedly well, slgihtly marred by the fact that I disagreed with the song on all points. (But you don't go to musicals to get enlightened ideas about romance and relationships. If you did, everybody would HATE MY Fair Lady, which has earned its popularity). But virtually all the men were well picked, all the dance bits excellent, if very busy. All in all, a happy night out. Thank you again,
_aura_._____________
Today I was bad. I walked home almost specifically to buy more music. I lucked in and found a copy of the CD that jeff gave me that was marred (When I returned it, they didn't have the same one, so I had to "settle for" a new Emmylou Harris!). Now I once again own Sarah Slean's Night Bugs. And the soundtrack to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, which may be better alone than with the movie. (I just started the second run through...) I had to get the sales-guy to help me with that, though, as I checked L and N, then, wondering if they used our accountant's filing system, T (Yes, the accountant at work will file things under "The". I kid you not). I forgot to try C for "Chronicles".
Bad, because just after getting Maddy Prior and the Girls' Bib and Tuck, at last at last, I should be super-happy. Maddy doing mostly-a capella and lightly accompanied work with two other vocalists of near-equal talent... And I AM in love with that, too. Oops. I guess I'll be lsitneing to my chrismtas and bad-girl-after-Christmas acquisitions for a while before I get back to the usual suspects.
Fortunately, to tie this to the discussion over at
sartorias, they all make good writing music, with the possible exception of Sarah Slean (And her other album made it into the line-up after a few listens-through, so I may be underestimating this one.) Raising the Storm isn't too picky about what I play, as long as it fits a certain atmosphere and isn't tied to another project, though there are albums it favours over others (yes, I could give a list). I don't yet know what fits Labyrinth best, but so far, nothing has thrown me out of story.Mmmm. Yeah. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe soundtrack will do nicely.
