telophase | (no subject)

ok holy wow. have finished a ... not quite outline, not quite draft..sort of...draftline of this Thing. 16,951 words, making this officially the longest bit of fiction I've ever put down in tangible form. Even though it's mostly What Happens without all the fiddly stuff like emotions and sensations and sentences that don't start "Okay so at this point they need to have done [X]..."

I haven't talked about it here because if I talk about fiction too much when doing it, that kills it dead. Plus when I get it into better shape I'll be asking for a couple of people to read it who know nothing about it* so y'all can tell me what parts need to be explained better.

Whew. I should at some point post a list of stuff I've looked up or read for this thing, as it turns out that my writing process for every single thing I've done is to be a librarian and look up or read a bunch of things that interest me until an idea gels, then to continue to look up and read stuff as I build the story out and discover I need to know something.

*

yhlee you're definitely on the list to read a draft as we've talked about, but I've shared a little bit too much about the world and characters with you to be sure it'll read to someone who knows nothing. XD

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Wooo draftline thing!

I am with you on the librarian approach to writing. I do not get the people who can do 'research this thing later', because I am always "I do not know what the next words are until I know if this thing is a valid thing'. (Which is not to say those people are wrong, just my personal brain cannot cope with that at all.)

I can occasionally do a [what did they actually call this colour/thing/food then] note, but I know what I'm describing and that it existed, just not what the word is.

Woo! Go you! *looks away, studiously ignores that Writing is Happening*

Exactly! Even though this thing is FICTION and is a FANTASY set in a MADE-UP WORLD in which I SET THE SOCIAL RULES, earlier this week I had to go find a book on the Renaissance and read it until I found justification for something I wanted to do as regards status and social class.

OTOH, I have lots and lots of [BIRD NAME HERE], [WHAT IS THIS GUY'S NAME] and [CITY NAME] and suchlike sprinkled throughout because not knowing those doesn't stop me. XD

Yay thank you! XD

That sounds like a solid outline! Go you!

Yes, exactly! If I'm doing something different, I want it to be deliberate, so I can flag it and explain it if needed.

Names are indeed different, though I do need to name people before I can do anything at all with them. (Or my editor mocks me for naming people George.)

Also, fun note not about writing - I set up the SBTB ad for Wards earlier this week, and Sarah commented on how gorgeous the cover was.

Thank you! :D

I had to know what to call the two primary characters before I could start, although the third primary character's name showed up when I typoed a word I've forgotten, so that wasn't a problem.

Note "call". I know what Character A is called, but not her full name (which is, er, sort of important), and I know what Character B is currently called, but not his original name (which is less important now, but if I ever get all this done will be important much, much further down the road).

None of the NPCs except for one have names yet, and that one has a name solely because I'd been calling that character "the lord's man" and then decided I needed more female speaking characters and switched the gender, but the epithet had stuck so long that I named her Mann. Which then gave her a personality, because she now makes stupid jokes about being the lord's Mann.

Also, re: SBTB: woo! XD

Oh, yeah, with you on full names versus what people use.

(My more posh characters tend to have awful Latinate first names and then something more sensible they actually use, but in keeping with British custom, sometimes that includes ridiculous nicknames or things that don't have the most obvious connection.)

I love the jokes about being the lord's Mann. That's awesome.

*\o/*

Placeholder names are dangerous. My last novel had so many placeholder names I gave up and declared the society's naming convention was to give people an appropriate name for what they do, hence bureaucrat Sharpquill and knight Stonefist.

Congrats! I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Congrats! What a milestone!