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International *Write Something* Month
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| Inventing an Opera |
[Nov. 3rd, 2011|09:49 pm] |
So I'm trying to simultaneously review the novel so far (to "get in the mood" more or less), get something written every day, and start getting up a head of steam for visualizing enough ahead to get some momentum. (And, having just reviewed my outline notes, I have a lot of plot-threads I should be working in at the moment that I needed to be reminded of.)
I really liked the posting at Making Light the other week about re-using your characters and story elements because it's something that I've noticed is making Daughter of Mystery into a far more interesting story than any of my previous attempts at novels. I think part of it is the plot-as-I-go aspect, because I can keep re-weaving existing threads back into the cloth -- or stick in virtual post-its at earlier points that say "Introduce element X here and then mention it occasionally until it becomes important." Keeping the detailed outline notes as ideas come to me has really helped on that end. So, for example, when I come back to the present point in the writing, I can go back to the spreadsheet and note that at the same time that the Mystery Guild is sorting out just what sorts of rituals they plan to develop, the Spring university term is starting (so the protagonists should be attending a different set of lectures), there are the first hints that Barbara is going to be intensely jealous of the time Margerit spends with the Guild, Barbara decides to start searching old church records trying to find some clue to her parentage, Margerit is going to start getting invitations to a slightly higher social class of events thanks to her aunt marrying a rather nice but penniless nobleman, and there are the beginnings of rumors of a Grand Council to discuss the matter of the succession (which Margerit is going to be oblivious to, not being of the nobility, but which is of vital importance for later events). Quite a bit to keep track of.
But today's fun New Thing is that I've decided I need to compose an opera. Well, not a whole opera. Just invent a composer and have them compose an opera that my protagonists will attend. Just recently -- for entirely unrelated reasons -- I was looking at medieval re-tellings of Ovid's story of Iphis & Ianthe. (Short version: to save her from being killed at birth, Iphis is raised as a boy. Believing Iphis to be a man, Ianthe's father decides to marry her off to Iphis. Iphis and Ianthe fall in love but spend an inordinate amount of time bewailing the assumption that their love is doomed because they're both women and nothing can come of it. A convenient divinely-mediated sex-change operation on Iphis resolves this problem and they live happily ever after.) Now, one of the problems I have in trying to write historical or pseudo-historical lesbian romance fiction is that I don't want to re-hash the whole "Oh, woe is me! How can two women love each other?" motif ad nauseum. And yet I'm typically working in a historical context where your average young woman would not be aware of the precedents and possibilities for same-sex love. So I'm always looking for examples -- and preferably at least somewhat positive examples -- that my characters might be aware of that could give them a Clue.
So having been thinking on the Iphis & Ianthe thing, and thinking that it would be exactly the sort of story that might end up in an early 19th century opera, a scene popped into my head of one of my protagonists doing real-time translation of the libretto for the other at a performance and getting this two-track effect where the words that she's translating are also what she'd like to be saying on her own behalf. Plus, there emerges a context for each of them to ruminate on the general topic. (They don't get to actually declare their love for about another third of the book.) The only problem? Nobody seems to have actually written an opera based on this story in the necessary timeframe. This may turn out to be a feature rather than a bug as it allows me to write my own libretto-fragments that suit the needs of the scene, rather than hunting through an existing work for something that would fit. Now I just need to invent a composer .... |
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| Once more into the breach, dear friends |
[Oct. 31st, 2011|11:40 pm] |
Last year I managed to keep the momentum from IWriSloMo going well into the Spring -- trailing off only when my life got eaten by the process of selling my house and buying a new one. But now with November come around again (and my housewarming party scheduled for later this month) I've been getting myself re-caught up on Daughter of Mystery and am planning to commit myself to writing every day again. It helps that I now have a couple hours on transit every day in which to work on it.
Is anyone else planning for a recommitment this month? |
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| Better late than never? |
[Dec. 2nd, 2010|11:13 am] |
It took an extra day, but I did get 30 poems written. However, I did not manage to get all of them in shape for publication. I'm not even happy with most of them.
While I would have thought that I could write through almost anything, coping simultaneously with family illness (not me) and parental holiday upsets did me in.
I am happy, though, in that I actually got the requisite number of poems written. Better than I did last year! |
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| Day 29 & 30 |
[Nov. 30th, 2010|10:58 pm] |
A fairly productive writing day yesterday, because of -- rather than despite -- the day being spent traveling from coast to coast. A bit less so today, but I got another page done. Margerit has been pointed at a book that may answer some of her questions about how she experiences magico-religious events and is in the process of trying to track down a copy from the usual booksellers who seem decidedly unhappy about supplying her with a copy. In the next bit (which I have solidly worked out but not yet written) Barbara will track down the book for her and in the process encounter a stalker who makes some vague threats relating to her past. This (and future similar encounters) will kick her curiosity about her origins into overdrive.
So that's all of November. I wrote something on all but two days, which isn't as good as last year, but still respectable. On the other hand, while sticking to the "something -- anything -- every day" is an inspiring discipline, it doesn't necessarily result in inspiring prose. The good writing that I did this month happened when I got some momentum going (as well as when my brain allowed me some plotting time). The "just a few sentences to say I did" days are mostly going to be a loss in terms of useful content. But on the up side, I'm once again energized about getting this thing written dammit! The trick will be continuing that momentum without the stubborn discipline of "every day" but instead focusing on writing on those days when I can get a good session in. |
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| 29 November |
[Nov. 29th, 2010|08:56 pm] |
138 words, some planning for tomorrow (when I suspect there will be very little time to write, so perhaps the day after), and a possible name for the antagonists.
Sedrion is going to steal a gun. I haven't fixed the details yet, but he will make Ebbe's acquaintance in the process. |
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| Day 28 |
[Nov. 28th, 2010|05:52 pm] |
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Several more pages. Margerit has gotten the rest of the info-dump on the Succession Question and is in the middle of pondering the beginnings of a "scientific" approach to the cause-and-effect nature of religious rituals. She's about to ask one of the theology professors a question that will stir up a bit more interest than she expected. |
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| 28 November |
[Nov. 28th, 2010|09:49 pm] |
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I'm at 185 words today. Sedrion is noticing weird things. |
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| Day 27 |
[Nov. 27th, 2010|07:11 pm] |
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Fairly productive again today. The info-dump covering the ruling family has mostly been dumped (except for the discussion of who the most legitimate prospective heir is, because that's not a good conversation to have in public). This occurred in the context of a religious service for the district's patron saint, so as a bonus we got to see a bit more of how Margerit experiences "the mysteries" -- i.e., the flows of magic/energy that are sometimes raised in the course of religious ceremonies. She's still getting a handle on the idea that not everybody experiences them the same way she does and that this Is Important. As another bonus, Margerit's Aunt Bertrut has just met a very nice older gentleman who helped her out in a minor jam and who is going to set out to becoming Properly Introduced to her. This is exactly the sort of condensed synergy that I need to keep the ball rolling in this part of the story. Next: Margerit is going to ask some intriguing questions about the mysteries that will attract the attention of a Bad Crowd. |
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| Day 25 & 26 |
[Nov. 26th, 2010|08:32 pm] |
I failed again on the 25th -- not through bad scheduling but through distraction. After I posted the previous two days' progress, I meant to get on with writing before going to bed but got sidetracked helping carrying gear in from someone's car, and then when I got back to the hotel room one of my roommates was asleep and I didn't want to turn lights on. But today has been very productive. I've set up a fairly natural context for Barbara to info-dump the last generation's worth of royal genealogy and politics and we are commencing to hear about the prince's two marriages, the assortment of progeny, and the debates over just who the proper heir is. Plus reference to various pieces of fallout from "the French wars" (the echo of our world's Napoleanic era in my alternate Europe).
I've realized that one stylistic issue I'm having at the moment is that my natural writing style focuses heavily on dialogue, but that approach is an outcome of my "mind movie" plotting style. Currently I'm writing a lot more narration -- but not particularly any more description than my default style. Description is always the part I have to work at consciously. I'm making a checklist of things to work on when I do a second pass through this month's work. I may even do that before moving on. (My pledge to write one end to the other has made allowance in the past for doing some interim cleanup -- not actual serious revision, though.) |
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| Day 23 & 24 |
[Nov. 25th, 2010|07:22 pm] |
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A meagre sentence or two on the 23rd, but I got in a fairly long writing session on the plane on the 24th, flying off to Darkovercon for the holiday weekend. (Although for the life of me I'd have to look at it to remember what the scene covered.) I tend to get a fair amount of writing in at conventions due to the whole "not a social butterfly" thing. I like hanging out in public spaces at a con to make myself available for social interactions, but often don't actually end up having those interactions. So taking my notebook out and writing gives me both a reason for sitting there and something productive to do if nothing else happens. |
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