![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaTwo novel updates: First, getting the first third of Trial printed was a pain since I no longer have a printer or work in an office where 50 pages of extra printing will go completely unnoticed. The library is my friend, even if it is my expensive friend. I would rather pay the library to print than go to kinko's or something. Supporting libraries and indie bookstores is pretty much the name of my game, even if I ended up printing the dang thing single-spaced to save on pages, which makes editing Fun. I'm through the first two chapters, with seven to go. Hopefully should get to that on Monday.
Second, in an earlier post I called the Flying Machines outline the Outline That Wouldn't, hence why I switched to writing Trial instead of pinning down the sequel to Skywatch. I went back to see if I could get the outline up to shape and discovered what I think I subconsciously already knew: it sucks. There was no core to build a book around. I was missing that most integral part of a query letter: the hook. The thing that makes you care about the mystery/quest/adventure.
So I decided to start tabula rasa. This book has only one requirement: that the story and POV belong to Julien, Eshe's friend from Skywatch. That's it. I know who Julien is, he was a main character in Skywatch, you'd think getting him his own book would be easy. BUT NO.
I left it alone to stew in the back of my head the way I do all story ideas I'm not ready to work on yet. For me, story ideas at this stage are one step beyond just having the idea--they're constantly in the back of my brain, getting rolled around by my brain like dung beetles do a ball, collecting stuff as they go. Moxie is constantly at the back of my brain, and has been for years. Short stories I'm drafting live there, and so do worlds I'm building (hence Moxie). Once an idea has gotten far enough out it tends to leave this stage, though there's always a certain amount of magpieing I do from life.
Three things collided and a wonderful new thing came of them. One: the aforementioned tabula rasa. Two: I'm halfway through an ARC of a memoir called Hidden Cities, by Moses Gates, the host of the tv show of the same name. For a person who doesn't like cities, I'm fascinated by all the unexamined, abandoned and off limits places in them. Three: I came across this post byjanice_lester about wheelchairs in spec-fic, specifically sci-fi. It brought Julien to mind, especially since I based his chair on the high-end manual chairs she talks about and did exactly what she suggests when I was designing it, only instead of futurizing it, I steampunked it. And in true steampunk fashion, Julien makes and mods his own chair.
I had one of those lightning bolt moments when an idea strikes me. Instead of already knowing what's wrong and trying to prove it (in retrospect, a clunky and unworkable idea for the kind of story the City in the Sky is set up to tell), I'm going to have Julien go City-spelunking (in a floating, man-made city!) and think there's something wrong, but not know what it is, or where it is, or even if he's right, plus he has to do all his investigating in places that are both off limits to him and difficult to get into physically and mentally (it's a thing from the Hidden Cities book, I'm enjoying the ARC so far, out in April 2013). Plus the off limits thing adds in tension with his family and tangentally raises an issue from Julien's past that sparks arguments with a specific family member.
Going where you're not supposed to go! Arguments! Self-Doubt! Discovery! Investigation! Probably not in that order. Possibly all at the same time. Those are the things a plot is made of.
I don't have an outline yet, but I ended up staying up way too late on the internet last night researching, and I'm going to have to re-read all my old "this is how I'm breaking the laws of physics" notes from when I was originally worldbuilding for Skywatch, and make some more detailed maps of the City. I don't think I'll start anything seriously until after I've finished the rough of Trial. But this feels like I finally, finally have a workable idea for the sequel to Skywatch, and it's been a long time coming. Huzzah!
Second, in an earlier post I called the Flying Machines outline the Outline That Wouldn't, hence why I switched to writing Trial instead of pinning down the sequel to Skywatch. I went back to see if I could get the outline up to shape and discovered what I think I subconsciously already knew: it sucks. There was no core to build a book around. I was missing that most integral part of a query letter: the hook. The thing that makes you care about the mystery/quest/adventure.
So I decided to start tabula rasa. This book has only one requirement: that the story and POV belong to Julien, Eshe's friend from Skywatch. That's it. I know who Julien is, he was a main character in Skywatch, you'd think getting him his own book would be easy. BUT NO.
I left it alone to stew in the back of my head the way I do all story ideas I'm not ready to work on yet. For me, story ideas at this stage are one step beyond just having the idea--they're constantly in the back of my brain, getting rolled around by my brain like dung beetles do a ball, collecting stuff as they go. Moxie is constantly at the back of my brain, and has been for years. Short stories I'm drafting live there, and so do worlds I'm building (hence Moxie). Once an idea has gotten far enough out it tends to leave this stage, though there's always a certain amount of magpieing I do from life.
Three things collided and a wonderful new thing came of them. One: the aforementioned tabula rasa. Two: I'm halfway through an ARC of a memoir called Hidden Cities, by Moses Gates, the host of the tv show of the same name. For a person who doesn't like cities, I'm fascinated by all the unexamined, abandoned and off limits places in them. Three: I came across this post by
janice_lester about wheelchairs in spec-fic, specifically sci-fi. It brought Julien to mind, especially since I based his chair on the high-end manual chairs she talks about and did exactly what she suggests when I was designing it, only instead of futurizing it, I steampunked it. And in true steampunk fashion, Julien makes and mods his own chair.I had one of those lightning bolt moments when an idea strikes me. Instead of already knowing what's wrong and trying to prove it (in retrospect, a clunky and unworkable idea for the kind of story the City in the Sky is set up to tell), I'm going to have Julien go City-spelunking (in a floating, man-made city!) and think there's something wrong, but not know what it is, or where it is, or even if he's right, plus he has to do all his investigating in places that are both off limits to him and difficult to get into physically and mentally (it's a thing from the Hidden Cities book, I'm enjoying the ARC so far, out in April 2013). Plus the off limits thing adds in tension with his family and tangentally raises an issue from Julien's past that sparks arguments with a specific family member.
Going where you're not supposed to go! Arguments! Self-Doubt! Discovery! Investigation! Probably not in that order. Possibly all at the same time. Those are the things a plot is made of.
I don't have an outline yet, but I ended up staying up way too late on the internet last night researching, and I'm going to have to re-read all my old "this is how I'm breaking the laws of physics" notes from when I was originally worldbuilding for Skywatch, and make some more detailed maps of the City. I don't think I'll start anything seriously until after I've finished the rough of Trial. But this feels like I finally, finally have a workable idea for the sequel to Skywatch, and it's been a long time coming. Huzzah!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-09 06:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-10 01:45 am (UTC)