Research, progress, etc.
Jun. 5th, 2007 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clarentineDay 5 of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
novel_in_90, and work on Satisfaction proceeds apace. I'm right on the verge of setting a ship alight, and it occurs to me that I do not have a story reason for doing so. I have an author's hand reason, but not a story reason. Bah.
::drops note to self in WIP: "wouldn't it make better sense if Josh had been forced aboard either Indomitable or Capella, such that this burning really makes a difference to him, personally?"::
Earlier, I was pondering the fact that this entire scene was written without dialogue of any sort. Is that a symptom, perhaps, of this disengagement with the protag, or a subconscious choice based on the scope of the action? Because there is action; there are ships getting quickly underway, and people firing guns at one another, and rowing, and ducking to avoid stray bullets. Probably the answer is, It depends. (And may I just say right now how much I hate that answer. And think that it is right.)
I do believe that it's necessary to show events in relationship to the protag who's experiencing them. This means, of course, that my note to myself is not a note but a mandate, and I will have to correct the mis-step in course, and will have to take it into account as I press onward. But now I have a focus from which to do so, and hopefully that will make the words come that much faster.
Which they must do, because I have a concert to go to tonight after work, and there will be no time for computers or novels. And I have not yet met my quota for the day. And lunch hour is, alas, all but done.
*****
Research recently pursued: incendiary devices/Molotov cocktails; images of full-rigged ships so that I can better describe Capella; British history leading up to the period in which I find myself. Old houses in Charleston. Old houses in the Bahamas. And I refreshed my recollection on the naming conventions of masts and rigging, because Josh is going to be sailing again soon and I want to make sure I know what I'm describing, even if Josh doesn't.
novel_in_90, and work on Satisfaction proceeds apace. I'm right on the verge of setting a ship alight, and it occurs to me that I do not have a story reason for doing so. I have an author's hand reason, but not a story reason. Bah. ::drops note to self in WIP: "wouldn't it make better sense if Josh had been forced aboard either Indomitable or Capella, such that this burning really makes a difference to him, personally?"::
Earlier, I was pondering the fact that this entire scene was written without dialogue of any sort. Is that a symptom, perhaps, of this disengagement with the protag, or a subconscious choice based on the scope of the action? Because there is action; there are ships getting quickly underway, and people firing guns at one another, and rowing, and ducking to avoid stray bullets. Probably the answer is, It depends. (And may I just say right now how much I hate that answer. And think that it is right.)
I do believe that it's necessary to show events in relationship to the protag who's experiencing them. This means, of course, that my note to myself is not a note but a mandate, and I will have to correct the mis-step in course, and will have to take it into account as I press onward. But now I have a focus from which to do so, and hopefully that will make the words come that much faster.
Which they must do, because I have a concert to go to tonight after work, and there will be no time for computers or novels. And I have not yet met my quota for the day. And lunch hour is, alas, all but done.
*****
Research recently pursued: incendiary devices/Molotov cocktails; images of full-rigged ships so that I can better describe Capella; British history leading up to the period in which I find myself. Old houses in Charleston. Old houses in the Bahamas. And I refreshed my recollection on the naming conventions of masts and rigging, because Josh is going to be sailing again soon and I want to make sure I know what I'm describing, even if Josh doesn't.
