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May. 29th, 2007 01:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseProgress notes for May 27, 2007:
Bird of Dusk
Total words new or revised : 1350
Probable percentage actually new: 99% (I stole a joke from the last draft)
Reason for stopping: 3 AM
Tea: cranberry-cherry juice and some water.
Music: More of the semi-random mix on my computer.
There's Always one more Quirk in the character: Jen giggles like a teenage girl, not like a maniac.
Mean Things: Not really; the female tussle for dominance got averted.
To-read pile: Diana Wynne Jones - The Game, Wrede & Stevermer - The Grand Tour. (I'm done the Martha Wells I own, and very frustrated at not having the third in the series, but this means I can continue Dorothy Dunnett's Queen's Play, so I'm good for now.)
Progress notes for May 27, 2007:
Total words new or revised : Over 1000
Probable percentage actually new: 100%
Reason for stopping: I'm feeling rather intimidated by trying to write Jen's POV, and more than a little like the words coming out are crud.
Tea: Earl Grey, raspberry-cranberry soda, roasted coconut juice.
Music: Monsoon Wedding Soundtrack, various Leonard Cohen.
Mean Things: Deliberately provocative remarks, reassessments of sanity.
To-read pile: As above.
I think I need to remind myself a little harder that trying to do something that might be beyond my current skill is a good thing.
Jen is the second point-of-view character in Bird of Dusk. Finno is self-destructive and wrong-headed, but he's relatively easy to write, because he's been remarkably consistent over the years, in spite of major plot changes. The last real shock I had was realising who the romantic interest actually was, and that's years back now. By contrast, Jen has been a character who gives me only and exactly what I need to write her point of view, and lies reflexively; I was a little impressed last draft to get a whole short scene from her that was completely honest. This time, apparantly, I finally cracked the trust barrier, and what she showed me behind it is scary.* I think it's also beyond mky ability to convey and keep her sympathetic. I actually spent what writing time I did take in the first half of the weekend going back through the first two scenes from her point of view, endeavouring to wipe out the whitewash where I made her more tame than she was, and I still think it comes across too lightly. She's not good. She's certainly not nice.
The worst is yet to come; two of the scenes I figured out while filing, whether from her view or Finno's, are going to involve seriously ripping out all the stops with her.
I'm gonna faceplant. And it's hard to convince oneself that one has to faceplant once in a while to improve when one isn't sure if the faceplant will be into soft snow or concrete walk.
On the other hand, if this works, she'll be breaking hearts.
* For those who think it's weird to talk as if the characters are sitting in my brain telling me stories, or resisting telling me the story I'm asking for - it is. But it's not too far from how it sometimes feels, and while I'm introspective enough to have figured out some of the actual byplay of conscious and subconscious in the doing, I prefer to use this shorthand.
Bird of Dusk
Total words new or revised : 1350
Probable percentage actually new: 99% (I stole a joke from the last draft)
Reason for stopping: 3 AM
Tea: cranberry-cherry juice and some water.
Music: More of the semi-random mix on my computer.
There's Always one more Quirk in the character: Jen giggles like a teenage girl, not like a maniac.
Mean Things: Not really; the female tussle for dominance got averted.
To-read pile: Diana Wynne Jones - The Game, Wrede & Stevermer - The Grand Tour. (I'm done the Martha Wells I own, and very frustrated at not having the third in the series, but this means I can continue Dorothy Dunnett's Queen's Play, so I'm good for now.)
Progress notes for May 27, 2007:
Total words new or revised : Over 1000
Probable percentage actually new: 100%
Reason for stopping: I'm feeling rather intimidated by trying to write Jen's POV, and more than a little like the words coming out are crud.
Tea: Earl Grey, raspberry-cranberry soda, roasted coconut juice.
Music: Monsoon Wedding Soundtrack, various Leonard Cohen.
Mean Things: Deliberately provocative remarks, reassessments of sanity.
To-read pile: As above.
I think I need to remind myself a little harder that trying to do something that might be beyond my current skill is a good thing.
Jen is the second point-of-view character in Bird of Dusk. Finno is self-destructive and wrong-headed, but he's relatively easy to write, because he's been remarkably consistent over the years, in spite of major plot changes. The last real shock I had was realising who the romantic interest actually was, and that's years back now. By contrast, Jen has been a character who gives me only and exactly what I need to write her point of view, and lies reflexively; I was a little impressed last draft to get a whole short scene from her that was completely honest. This time, apparantly, I finally cracked the trust barrier, and what she showed me behind it is scary.* I think it's also beyond mky ability to convey and keep her sympathetic. I actually spent what writing time I did take in the first half of the weekend going back through the first two scenes from her point of view, endeavouring to wipe out the whitewash where I made her more tame than she was, and I still think it comes across too lightly. She's not good. She's certainly not nice.
The worst is yet to come; two of the scenes I figured out while filing, whether from her view or Finno's, are going to involve seriously ripping out all the stops with her.
I'm gonna faceplant. And it's hard to convince oneself that one has to faceplant once in a while to improve when one isn't sure if the faceplant will be into soft snow or concrete walk.
On the other hand, if this works, she'll be breaking hearts.
* For those who think it's weird to talk as if the characters are sitting in my brain telling me stories, or resisting telling me the story I'm asking for - it is. But it's not too far from how it sometimes feels, and while I'm introspective enough to have figured out some of the actual byplay of conscious and subconscious in the doing, I prefer to use this shorthand.
