Climbing Plot Mountain

This illustrated map of the Middle East (roughly) and the groups who historically have controlled portions thereof is too cool not to propagate further:

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

(As is pointed out in comments below, it's an overly simplistic version of who owned what. Nevertheless, being a visual creature, I find the summarization intriguing, and trust you will do so, as well.)

***

As might be guessed, I'm home from my long travels away for the holidays and done with the enormous work backlog caused by courts who want to clear their dockets for the holidays by ordering responses in their active caseloads. December is one of those months I'm always happy to see the back of. So much expectation, so many deadlines and obligations to juggle! Add in a seriously ill family member, a historical snowfall on the eve of the holiday journey to the parents', and a massive sinus headache that just would not die, and you have an idea what this month has been like around here.

Needless to say, I've not been particularly productive on the writing front. Good thing I declared December mental vacation time. *g*

There have been books read. There have been books begun and ditched for lack of character identification (just could not seem to care enough to bother finishing, though I tried twice with one of them). There have even been books added to the "must obtain a copy for myself" list. I tried valiantly to introduce myself to new works, rather than wallow in the comfortable re-reads that cushion me when my brain is just too crispy or traumatized to function on anything but the most basic levels, and I think with that goal I've succeeded.

Beginning in January, I expect to be back to the writing, this time working on the second draft for Bells - this should be the theme-and-foreshadowing pass. One of the effects of writing for word count (this novel was written using novel_in_90's 750-words-a-day goal) is that I did not have time to rein in my subconscious, and so I'm having to seriously think about some of the issues that rose to the surface, issues I was aware lurked down there but hadn't really explored otherwise. I want to do justice to this book. I also want to get the draft done and sent off to the Lovely Agent. I worry that the two goals are not compatible.

Ah, well. One does what one can with the time one has to work in.

***

I mentioned above an effect of participating in novel_in_90. Another effect, very noticeable to me, is an astonishing unguided focus on plot. Bells and its sibling, the unfinished pirate novel Satisfaction, both unabashedly laid down plot point after plot point without any forethought on my part. I cheered! Not for nothing is this blog called Climbing Plot Mountain; I swear, the longer I work at this writing thing, the taller that damned mountain seems to grow. (There's a Zelazny short story about the tallest mountain in the known universe and the urge to climb it, and what one might find at the top, that lingers in my memory. Let's just say that I don't expect to find Paradise when I reach the summit.)

Of course, while the plot point blind navigation thing worked for Bells (at least I think it did), Satisfaction lingers unfinished precisely because it ran itself aground on uncharted plot and I haven't figured out yet how to drag it off. Josh pokes at me from time to time. I haven't forgotten him or his friends, and I will resolve the problem...someday. Just not today.

I understand that novel_in_90 is beginning a new round come January 1. Allow me to highly recommend the exercise, whether or not you think you can write to that sort of word count demand. I didn't think I could, either. It's amazing what I learn when I stop fighting myself. *g*