Climbing Plot Mountain

My, how time does fly when you’re...well, it’s the run-up to Christmas, so it’s hard to have fun, but there’s certainly enough to get done.

My mother and I have made a pact: only homemade gifts this year. My dad makes awesome fudge. I’ve got the jams I made this fall to distribute. There will be cookies, of course. Probably I should get baking them this weekend....

I mailed one of my gifts already, a packet of seeds of the Cosmos sulphureus I grew in the garden this year to someone who will make good use of them. I notice that the Cosmos seeds on offer in the various catalogs I’ve seen all have the orange and red variants of the plant I’ve grown for years. I’m smugly congratulating myself on having the yellow variant in my plants, as well. This is one I intend to sow in the long meadow for color next year – let’s hope it takes!

***

One of the things consuming my “free” time is the continuing round of novel_in_90. We’re not quite at the halfway point, but I’ve managed to accumulate something over 33K words (by Word’s count, not SMF; I’m at 147 pages SMF, which works out to nearly 37K words). It’s gonna be a drafty draft, with lots of episodes of characters talking to the author, but you can’t edit it if it’s not on the page, right?

So far I’ve managed to be really mean to my characters (where being mean = conflict, which is a good thing). I have a feeling the story is about to become really mean to me, however; there’s an element of magical realism I intend to interject, but I’m not sure why my subconscious, when I was coming up with the idea for the story, decided I had to have this particular element. I still don’t know why. And I’m about to put a character on screen with no idea why she’s there.

I’ve done this novel thing often enough to know not knowing is a really big invitation to lots of rewriting...and I hate rewriting. Under the rules for Nin90, I could just plow ahead and write the parts I do know and worry about this character’s Why later. I am, however and much to my occasional regret, a linear writer, and this will not work.

Maybe it’s a good thing it’s a discovery draft, as well. I’ve got a lot to discover.

***

For those following along on farm news, the egg production is up far enough that I’ve begun letting my former clientele know that I can now begin selling them eggs again. (One of the people who have gotten eggs have not yet used one of the blue ones because they’re so pretty. Awwww....) (Yes, blue. Ameraucana blue. Like these:
)

And I sold my first dozen that very same day. >:-)

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. Three weeks without a home computer can certain carry part of the blame for that, and the rest probably goes to the plot conundrum that ate my head and the story I was working on, too.

Good news: I found a new icon. Ain't he cool? *g*

Better news: I have a new computer. It's a MacBook, and it's pretty spiffy. Right now I'm test-driving Office for Mac, but I think it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that I'm going to be buying that software; I'll probably be staying in the business workforce for at least the near future, so it's a good idea to keep up with the software used there. Also, I like Word 2004. The places it's different, it's not so different. The writer in me is excited that all I have to do to get a word count is highlight the text I want to count; the number displays at the bottom of the screen. *g* (And, yeah, not SMF word count, but it'll do for novel_in_90 purposes.)

Best news: With the help of some good and clever friends, I've got some idea how to bridge the plot problem and am moving forward again. Three days meeting quota on the word count is a grand thing. Of course, at the end of the week I'm going away yet again, and will not even try to be writing during that time, as this trip is to see and spend time with my packmates and that I cannot count as anything but time well spent. The writing will recommence upon my return.

July was a hell of a month. So much so, that it's already into August before I could report on July.

There were two personal vacations in there - the first up into the mountains for some camping and hiking, and the second to the beach to stomp around in strangers' gardens. I've mostly made quota for novel_in_90, and when I didn't I've caught up.

*****

I've decided, after a little bit of research, that Mary Read was 24 in 1720 when she was tried for piracy. It's as close as I can come, and close enough for my purposes with this novel. It's known she fought with the British army in Flanders before taking ship (for the second time) and sailing to the West Indies, where she eventually became a member of Jack Rackam's crew. The last campaign in Flanders that I can find record of was in 1711. Assuming she had to be at least 15 to have joined the army at that point, that puts her birth date no later than 1696.

*****

Other things researched lately have included ships which might stand in for Rackam's vessel, which I've christened Revenge. I've settled, for the time being, on a sloop called Swift, which was actually built in 1721 but close enough for my purposes. I don't have a schematic that shows Swift's cabin layout, but that's okay; I do have a layout for Sultana, which is about the same length and built about 50 years later than my time period, and that will do.

Sultana's website is here: http://www.schoonersultana.com/sultanahistory.htm

I also did some research on rum punch and the making thereof, which is coming in handy today as my characters are in the process of making some.

And did I mention that friends of a friend were kind enough to give me a blow-by-blow of a sailing vessel dealing with an approaching hurricane? Great details. Thank you both!

*****

I keep having people participating in novel_in_90 noting with a smile that they are glad they're not characters in my stories. These sorts of observations thrill me; they mean that the characters have caught their attention and the reader is feeling sorry for them, and that sort of identification is exactly what I want.

I've been using the "How do things get worse here?" question to prompt me to keep my eyes on the plot, and it seems to be working. Where I get off track, I figure it out pretty quickly when there isn't anything bad happening, and I can be certain that the story is staying interesting. Not to mention painful, if you're Josiah Eaden. ::grin::

Earlier this week, I was involved in conversations about foreshadowing and setting on a writers' list I frequent. I got to thinking about how I use foreshadowing, and corrinalaw and I batted the topic back and forth.

I'm trying to pay attention as I write this draft of Satisfaction, to see when I layer in things that will be foreshadowing (things that I already recognize as foreshadowing, I should say) and to see if there's a pattern to the layering. I guess what I'm doing is that, as I write, I see all sorts of fractal possibilities with each decision made by the characters. I can glance down each and see if any of them hold potential to work with the overall themes of the book as I know them, and if they do then I choose to include those layers.

Who I chose for bosun's mate in Satisfaction is one of those fractal layers that stayed. The new bosun has to have a mate to help with the implementing of discipline. Discipline is, in part, at the end of the lash, so when the new bosun (who's Dutch) turned up with a bigger, more aggressive countryman, I gave him a rope belt with a big, nasty knot at its end. It's just a detail of setting when he's first introduced, but I know that there'll be nastiness with ropes later on, so it's also foreshadowing, depending on how he uses it. Plus there's the verses of the What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor, (at least) one of which involves the lash and many of which have potential to lead to scenes in this story. So, layers equal foreshadowing.

And setting equals foreshadowing, too. There is a significance to every setting; the work is in figuring out what that significance is to the person narrating the scene. If a character is leading a bunch of others escaping down a corridor in a secured compound, the choice of corridors matters, both to the characters and to their interaction. One of them chose this route. The others have a reaction to the choice, and to the route. They are living in your setting.

It's not what the corridors look like, in other words, but what the corridors mean to the characters. If they mean safety, or concealment, you describe how hard it is to see the characters in them, how they can work their way up to corners unobserved, the texture of the floor that enables them to run silently, that sort of thing. If they mean imminent capture, you describe the lighting, the noise the walls and floors are echoing around, the positioning of cameras. All of those things might be there - the lighting, the cameras, the positioning of the corners, the texture of the floor - but what you choose to describe is determined by what you want to convey to the reader.

*****

Research has been limited because my available time has been rather compressed lately. I'm still doing minor readings on the city of Charleston ca. 1720 or so, not so much that I think the story will end up there as for the sense of place and time the information gives me. Port Royal had already experienced the first of its series of horrific earthquakes by the time of this story, and while it still existed as a city it was much reduced from what it had been. There are no existing buildings anymore for me to get this sense of place from.

(And hmm. There's one of those fractal layers I was talking about, above. Port Royal as a city crumbling around its residents' ears. One of the themes of this book is the clash of two societies and their mores (which are not the same as morals, but have things in common with them). So, when I do get to describing Port Royal, I need to describe the elements that will show this crumbling of the old regime.)

I had to do some research on bowsprit rigging, which drove me back to my notes from The Sailing Navy List - All the Ships of the Royal Navy, Built, Purchased and Captured, 1688-1860, by David Lyon. (All hail Interlibrary Loan; this book is in extremely limited circulation, and purchasing an available copy is just not feasible, though I'd love to have one.)

I also did some research into older building techniques in the Caribbean. (Hint: the islands aren't really rock, or at least the Bahamas Islands aren't, and that's where the scene is set.)

*****

Work on Satisfaction is ticking along at a respectable pace; thus far, I've made daily quota for novel_in_90, though getting back into the swing of daily word count was not easy. I've put up about 6000 new words in the first week of solid work on it, and the story's becoming fun again, thank whoever. I did not relish the idea of slogging through this story if I couldn't get it to be enjoyable...and while I understand there's something to be said for the discipline of writing even if you don't think the story is exactly enjoyable at the moment--as in, revisions for an editor, which I can hope to be doing at some unknowable point in the future--that isn't a lesson I want to practice right now.

1,068 new words, and ticking right along. Haven't made it to the fire, yet, which does not upset me; it's coming. Maybe tomorrow.

Bad things inflicted on protag: Jack f#%king Rackam giving him the stink eye; being treated like a kid; just been told he can't go into Nassau with the rest of the crew.

Coming up: Fire!

Research needed: Fire on board wooden ship; calico fabric; men's fashions ca. 1720.

The next round of novel_in_90's traveling word circus begins June 1. If you were looking for that daily kick in the pants to ensure you get words, here's your chance to get in at the start.

The goal of the community is simple: 750 words a day, seven days a week, for 90 days. Post each day to let the community know if you reached that goal, and stand by for mocking if you didn't. Feel free to mock in your own turn; that's the strength of the community, that someone surely will be there to kick your butt if you back away.

This round, my plan is to work on the pirates book. I've done months and months of research and have better than 100 pages already...and a story line that has gone nowhere. Time to regroup, figure out where to pick it up, and move forward.

::edges closer to the ball marked Writing in preparation for adding it to the balls already being juggled::

It's a rainy Thursday, and the Queen is in Richmond, and because they've closed our entire office block for security reasons (and the street between my building and Capitol Square, and my parking garage) I had time to finish up the edits I wanted to make to Cavalier, and then put together those queries I'd intended to send last week. I've posted five new queries and sent the requested partial manuscript off.

I'd forgotten how useful a significantly long stretch of hours could be when one is in a mood to write. *g* The edits were polishing, really, but I'd been dithering over them for a while. Once I sat down to work this morning, with corrinalaw's comments, they went quickly.

I'm not sure what comes next. It's still spring, and the design jobs are keeping me hopping in what there is of my spare time. Probably I ought to concentrate on those, since their timeline is finite, and let the two stories I have percolating brew a bit longer. The pirate story is not ready; I went awry somewhere, after a promising start, and haven't yet figured out where. Probably I ought to simply do the novel_in_90 thing again and just get it written, and worry about the editing later. The Bells story that I wrote this winter with novel_in_90's help has plenty of plot - shock! amaze! - but needs more characterization.

(In fact, I believe the problem with shooting for consistent word count is that I'm going to consistently miss out on the characterization I love so much but that takes a while to develop; I don't know if this dooms this means of generating words, or not. I guess we'll see how hard it turns out to be to flesh Bells out.)

A slow words day at the end of a slow (and cold, and icy) weekend. I got my quota early on Saturday and spent the rest of the day reading over here: http://file40.net/file40g/crispins/cris_page.html. Sunday it took forever to get words, mostly because I would write a line or a paragraph and have to go do more research. (Great page on the St. Johns river basin here: http://sjr.state.fl.us/welcome/river_tour/river_tour.html.)

And now Monday is staring me in the face, and I want to blink and sit down and stare at the freezing rain accumulating on my deck, sip some tea, and read while my subconscious processes the next disaster to hit Gi and Brazas on their trip across Florida.

I think it's bears next. Or more Indians. Or, you know, maybe something that might drive the plot?

::whines::

I got my quota of words, but that is all. I would go over to chat, but there are still things to be done before calling it quits for the night.

It's just one of those damned days.