rflong: (Dogmatix)
( May. 4th, 2009 10:30 pm)

Well, I'm kind of in shock. I've just finished writing Moy Tura Echoes, all 95k of it. And its only taken 3 years (on and off).

Seriously, I think I am in shock. I thought I'd be excited, delighted, over the moon or something. Instead I'm just... not.

Maybe the joy will hit tomorrow. Maybe I know how much work I have ahead of me to whip it into shape.

But in the meantime. OMG. I'm finished.

Off to bed to collapse in exhaustion...
rflong: (Buggre alle this...)
( May. 3rd, 2009 10:44 pm)
Here we are a couple of days into May and we're having great and productive fun at Romance Divas with MayNoWriMo. I'm working on finishing Moy Tura Echoes and I'm a hair's breadth from the end. Unfortunately the end keeps moving. I was aiming for 90k, but I'm now at 91k and still going. Especially as the characters have just changed the end. Or at least part of it. They tend to do that.

Particularly these characters.

So hopefully tomorrow. Hopefully. I really want it finished now. Pretty please?

I'm on a great team though, with loads of hard work being done. Yes, we're largely making things up as we go along (what's new, huh?) and that's part of why I'm enjoying it I think.

Here an excerpt detailing where it all went haywire this evening...

She didnt even cry out when his sword went right through her.

Hell in a handbag!


Originally published at R. F. Long.

In between "finishing" Moy Tura Echoes, dealing with the alter-ego's continuing demands for custody of the brain for her writing, plotting The Wolf's Destiny (book 3, which will have to be, well, book-length), crits, betas, oh! and everday life, I saw a piece of graffiti in Dublin yesterday which handed me the entire plot for a YA novel - okay, I figured out the main gist on the bus on the way home.

So now I have something else to write. Yay me!

Actually I am trying to be sensible about this. I have wrote a summary last night and broke it down scene by scene this morning. Now I am going to try to leave it alone until I have finished Moy Tura. Lee has promised to "enable" me about it, which means of course she has to "enable" me to finish the other book first. I got a good 1300 on Moy Tura today and turned a small corner (of Grafton Street as it turns out). I also did some research yesterday which involved lots of walking around places where scenes are/will be set and taking photos. So here is Dublin, yesterday.Cut for f-pages... )

(And realised I misspelled Cuchulainn - or maybe I can pretend it's a variant spelling. Yeah... that's it.. variant spelling...)
Yes, still crawling towards the end. Now I've got to that part which reminds me why I ended up switching from pure pantsing to a vague sort of plotting whereby I at least know what is meant to be happening in the long run. I do know, now, but it also means that as I pull the loose ends together I also have to jot down all the things I need to go back and change in order to make it work.

It turns out that most of the elements are related to time. Which is rather funny, as its the one thing I have very little of. But time is a major factor in this novel all of a sudden, which it never was before. It fascinates me (and frustrates me sometimes) how this story in particular twists itself around. Just when I think I have a handle on it, something new pops up.

And of course I am easily distracted by other projects. I have another novel in hand and another novella to write (Jeren & Shan no. 3), and I got a call for anthology subs for this and next year for the alter-ego.

I am stressing about the things I have out at the moment because despite my best efforts I am supremely bad at letting go! And stress does bad bad things to me.

And that old library story is stirring around in my head at the moment, but its still really a setting and characters without a plot, as yet. But its layering up well in my mind. Which is dangerous, because eventually it will reach critical mass and I will have to start that as well. Ah, but this time, I will start with an outline. I promise. I have to.

I have a couple of crits to do for friends which I need to get to, I have an article to write, but at least I got the excerpts for Soul Fire selected and sent off so I don't have that hanging over me anymore. I hope to get some writing done on something this evening and some critting as well, but its a case of balancing everything. And still managing to eat and sleep.
And will be some more.

This weekend is P-Con, so I will be there, for the most part. This weekend is also [livejournal.com profile] e_w_h 's birthday so I will be at his party on Saturday night as well. And staying overnight in parents. There is a fair amount of running around to be done anyway, and child-wrangling.

-----

For some reason my stress levels have gone through the roof lately. Its a combination of many small things rather than any one biggie, but its irritating the hell out of me as I have now graduated to those ridiculous dreams where you keep thinking you've woken up, but you haven't. I'm trying to ignore things. Not sure its working.

-----

We watched Quantum of Solace last night, which wasn't as bad as I was led to believe, but I really couldn't* buy the villain in his flowery shirts. And as for the theme song... *shudders* I am one of the few people in the world it seems who liked the Chris Cornell one for Casino Royale, but this... uh... nothanksbyebye.

*eta: Couldn't buy the villain in a flowery shirt, I had "could", probably was half asleep when I typed this. He was not a James Bond villain. Sorry. Not at all. Blofeld and Goldfinger would never have allowed him in the club.

-----

I have no news. I started working on Moy Tura Echoes again last night. I thought I had gone wrong with a scene and should have killed off a character, but when I went back to look it turns out I still need him. This is not to say he will be safe for much longer. but for a little while. That said, there are already two characters slated to die towards the end so another might be overkill (Ha! Pardon the pun).

Another thing I have to do is write an article on Fantasy Worldbuilding before the 5th, which I would like to do without repeating all the things I've said about it elsewhere. This might be the tricky part, mainly because when I sit down to write about a subject I tend to forget whatever I've written on it before and before I know it... identicle article. So I want to have a long hard think about it. Sometime. When I have some time. Which I won't. Suspect I will sit down on the 4th to write and forget everything I have ever written on the subject before and... well, you get the idea. Not that my theories have changed. I'd just like it to be fresh.

-----

Also one of my colleagues just showed me this website. I am a cat person, sure, but sorry this is just WRONG!

You know the image of trying to put an octopus in an orange net making sure that none of the tentacles poke out of any of the holes?

This is trying to write the end of Moy Tura Echoes.

*sigh*


(and to a lesser extent The Wolf's Mate - now try doing both of them at once *double sigh*)
rflong: (Default)
( Sep. 29th, 2008 03:05 pm)
is almost 10k now. Happy day!

To make up for goofing off as the alter-ego, I wrote some more Moy Tura as well so feel better about that.

I think I have just about got them all to final battle No. 1, then we have holy unmitiageted disaster, then a wee bit of redemption with other Gods involved and final battle no. 2 (the first one wasn't as final as everyone thought).

So that makes perfect sense to everyone. Isn't plotting fun???*


*if the f-ing characters would ever read the script and follow the plot!

rflong: (Default)
( Sep. 26th, 2008 12:16 pm)
And wrote 2500 words of the new Urban Fantasy last night for the alter-ego (as it could get a bit... em... y'know). I blame the characters. I totally blame the characters.

And 183 words of Moy Tura. Ditto!

*pouts*
rflong: (The Wolf's Sister)
( Sep. 15th, 2008 12:02 pm)
Things I have discovered this morning: Vistaprint does not make things easy for anyone.

----

Great weekend

I met a writing friend in Dublin on Saturday at the wonderful Epicurean Food Hall. We had hot chocolate and talked for almost 2 hours! My throat was sore when I got home so I have a suspicion as to who did most of the talking! :D

On Sunday we took the kids to see Swan Lake at the National Concert Hall, performed by the Russian National Ballet. Wonderful production! E_W_H won tickets on the radio. These were central seats in the front row of the balcony. We chanced our arm and all went in, managing to pick up two additional seats which were more or less the front of the stalls, almost central. Armed with a normally talkative child each we split up. I took the beloved son up to the balcony while E_W_H and darling daughter took the stalls. I have to say watching a ballet with an almost 7 year old boy is interesting. I answered lots of questions, such as the usual "Who's he?" and "Why's he doing that?" to the more esoteric "Why aren't they talking?" and my favorite "Why is everyone dancing?!"

Hissing "Because its a ballet!" at him got me a very funny look.

------

I did a little work on The Wolf's Mate but I am trying to take a bit of a break this week because
(a) I finished the edits for The Scroll Thief and felt like my brain had been fried
(b) my CP Elaina (*waves*) is currently in nightmare edits trying to get a requested ms out to an agent when the characters keep changing the end on her so I'm trying to help on that
and (c) I got The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay on Saturday - the only book that could make me put aside Marion Meade's biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, if only temporarily. Seriously, both are wonderful books. I normally find biographies very dry (prefer autobiographies) but Meade makes Eleanor and her world come to sparkling life. Her descriptions of processions, banquets and battles are fabulous. But GGK is GGK and after reading the Fionavar Tapestry within a week I am Hooked (yes, with a capital H)

That said I have been scribbling away longhand and Shan and Jeren have reached their first black moment. The first of many I fear. My concern with this story is that it is potentially more her story than his and I don't want to see him relegated to standing around in the background (impressive though his pecs may be). There needs to be a balance. Also at the moment there is far too much standing around talking.

A couple of Moy Tura ideas have started to percolate again, so I hope soon to write some more there as well. But I dont want to push it and have the characters clam up on me again. They're stubborn that way.

eta: I updated the book trailer to include the cover and various helpful suggestions. Almost forgot to embed it!
Some more Moy Tura hit the laptop and went splat all over the place. 2,379 words to be exact. The rest of the chapter I didn't want to finish -- the unpleasant part. And the start of the next chapter.


today's word count: 2379
total word count: 50812

This has brought me up to about 269 pages (I think) and I appear to be on the downhill roll now (spot the words liable to completely knacker any further progress).

I know where we're going. I just have to get us there. *sigh*

No other news. Children have not assaulted anyone. Bought a barbeque which we now have to construct. I expect we'll have it done just as the fine weather goes away. :D

Speaking of the weather, I'm looking out the window here and trying to devise ways of escaping without being noticed. It is just glorious -- birds singing, sun shining, the breeze moving gently through the leaves of the enormous horse chestnut on the far side of the field. And an enormous pile of books to catalogue on my desk. I seriously need to investigate ways of remote cataloguing. It has to be possible!!!

Ticking along.
rflong: (Dogmatix)
( May. 2nd, 2008 10:22 am)
This may just be the slump after the many highs of the last week. But...

Last night my sister referred to me as "a middle aged woman".

My older sister.

*pout*

Not impressed.

*double pout*

I said "Are you calling me old?" to which she replied "No, because that would have knock-on connotations."

But middle aged!!!

I will not proudly re-state for the record that I am still, and will most likely always be, sixteen in my head.

(I wish that made me slender, energetic and fun-loving, but I remember myself as a sixteen year old so... Nah, probably not. Maybe fun-loving. Who doesn't love fun?)

Anyway, got back into the Robert Emmett scene in Moy Tura Echoes last night and typed it up. Which is good. It has now made it to 45,532 words or 236 pages.

But I'm still sulking.

*pout*
rflong: (Sive)
( Apr. 1st, 2008 10:24 am)
I did nothing last night.

Nothing constructive in terms of my writing anyway. I did an edit for one friend, failed to do the crit for the other (sorry Dude! Tonight, I promise!) and mucked about with word counts, excel spreadsheets, forums and LJ. Mainly LJ.

To Regain Heaven now stands at 59,209 words. I'm about half way through Chapter 16, but I mucked about with 15 a bit more as well over the weekend. I've added 10,466 words. This leaves 10,791 to go. Just about half way there in total then. Unfortunately, I've only 4 and a half Chapters left. *sigh*

I have a feeling I will be going through this again soon. As a paranormal romance it doesn't have to enormous, and it is probably better if it is not, but it would be nice to at least make 70k with it. One day.

On the plus side, I did some work on my urban fantasy, Moy Tura Echoes, and wrote another 6 or so pages in bed (longhand, so no word count) in which bad things happen to good people. Seems to be the theme of this novel. Maeve's back. She's very busy at the moment.

I'll ask you this though, if a group of immortals wanted to live in a city and interact with the citizens it would be handy if most people couldn't see them as they actually appeared, wouldn't it? Portraits, photos etc, would look like someone else so they wouldn't actually leave a trace in history. It isn't conscious on their part. It's more of the human "can't stare too long at the sun" thing again. That would work, wouldn't it? Huh?

Someone give me some confirmation that I am not going bonkers!

See, I'm also thinking that they could take part in historical events without being remembered - people who act as aspects of different god figures - war leaders, peace makers, muses etc.

Hmmm....

God this novel does my head in.

I have to crit tonight and then do more editing. Mulling over the plot intricacies for Moy Tura will happen whether I like it or not.

The library is fine. Sends its love. I have a big pile of books waiting for cataloguing, so better go.
rflong: (Plotbunny)
( Mar. 10th, 2008 04:36 pm)
And a whole lot of nothing done...

So, to round it up:

Friday (I think): work work work. Submit The Penitent to the same publisher who is looking at The Wolf's Sister. Well, its the same world. And she asked if I had anything else suitable!

Saturday: (Writing) I typed up/edited about 2000 words of Moy Tura - the whole Nuada among the Sidhe section. Kind of a disturbing chapter altogether, necessary as it is time to up the anti. I know I said 32k in my last post but its actually 43k now. Typing in/editing the Robert Emmett scene. Hmmm. Some people are not going to like me for this one I fear.

(Not writing) We also drove to Belfast and shopped in Ikea. It took HOURS but we came away with six matching chairs. Six actual MATCHING chairs. Never in my life have I owned such a thing! Delighted. And we also bought assorted cushions, napkins, nightlights and a tablecloth. Oh, and a step. Because I am short and certain areas in my kitchen are not!

Sunday: (Writing) Em. Yes. Em. What was that again? Well, I did a little bit on To Regain Heaven. A little. Under 1k. And I am a little disturbed by the new tendancy I have developed to call it To Regain Heave. That's just not right is it?

(Not writing): Took Diarmuid to see a preview of The Spiderwick Chronicals. Excellent movie. Freaked us both out a bit. Then went to Chapters on Parnell Street. I haven't been in it since they moved from Abbey Street and I want to know where they acquired the Tardis to house it in? The place is huge. Just when you think you must be getting to the back of the shop, you turn a corner and there's more. Space/Time rift bookshop eat your heart out!!! L-space lives. Went home, built chairs (3 of them). Very pretty. Watched Ella Enchanted. A lot more fun than I thought it would be.

Today: work work work. I finally have a blurb ready for To Regain Heaven. Now it needs to be made shiny. And I bought a tv corner unit. And cushion covers. Coz... You know... em... Yeah.

Oh, and I may be going to P-Con. If so I hope to see Ladywolf! That would be cool!

So that's it. This evening (brace yourselves) more chair building. Maybe some tv corner unit building. A large g+t, at least.

*sigh* I think i've exhausted myself again.
Finally got some progress on Moy Tura Echoes.

For those of you who haven't been plagued with this story so far, haven't heard of my WIP, Moy Tura Echoes is at about 32k. It's an urban fantasy where the ancient Celtic Gods still live secretly among mankind, holding back the Formorians from our dimension, led by Morgan, (aka the Morrigan) who discovers that her long dead lover Lugh is back, as a mortal, just as her nemesis Maeve begins to launch an all out attack.

This is the hardest *insert rude word here* I have ever tried to write. Sometimes its like getting blood out of a stone and then everything clicks back into place and it just flows. I recently moved from state one to state two so I hope to get some more work done on it now.

I was stuck on a scene where Nuada was spying on the baddies using the watching places of the Sidhe. And I was stuck! Eventually I came to the conclusion that we were probably just going to have a really unpleasant Maeve scene watched through his eyes so I might as well get on with it and make it as horribly Maeve as possible. That seemed to work.

I'm currently writing a scene where Morgan, Tuan and the human Jack are consulting an oracle, deep beneath the crypts of St. Michan's Church in Dublin. The oracle happens to be the severed head of Robert Emmett, one in a long line of revolutionaries with possibly more zeal than actual ability, whose grave remains a mystery. He's a bit pissed about being an oracle as (a) he has no body, (b) he made a vow never to rest until Ireland was free from tyranny without realising, as Morgan puts it, tyranny never actually goes away and (c) 24 hour news tv has only recently been invented and it is his only entertainment. As you can probably tell, its not terribly reverent.

I'm sorry. I can't help it. It's treated seriously. Its just that Tuan keeps making comments. And Robert isn't helping!

I think I finally worked out the end though, while I was on the Luas going into town this morning. (I went on a tour of the Houses of the Oireachtas - it was lovely. You never see the ceiling of the Senate room on tv, so all that beautifully restored stucco work from the 1770s is forgotten! But I digress.) Yes, the ending. One which potentially works and fills in a couple of the larger issues I was starting to see in the book as a whole. It will mean some bizare research - such as does anyone know any pre-Christian Polish or Romanian Gods? - and a fair amount of writing of course, as I still have to get there. But it is progress. So I thought I would report it.

*sigh*

I hope this doesn't sound as bonkers to you as it does to me some times!

R

ps I HAD to

Your Score: Tigger

You scored 16 Ego, 10 Anxiety, and 15 Agency!

And as they went, Tigger told Roo (who wanted to know) all about the things that Tiggers could do.

"Can they fly?" asked Roo.

"Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers are. Strornry good flyers."

"Oo!" said Roo. "Can they fly as well as Owl?"

"Yes," said Tigger. "Only they don't want to."

"Why don't they want to?" well, they just don't like it somehow."

Roo couldn't understand this, because he thought it would be lovely to be able to fly, but Tigger said it was difficult to explain to anybody who wasn't a Tigger himself.

You scored as Tigger!

ABOUT TIGGER: Tigger is the newest addition to the Hundred Acre Wood, and he lives with Kanga and Roo, because Roo's strengthening medicine turned out to be the thing that Tiggers like best. Tigger is bouncy and confident -some of his friends think he is a little TOO bouncy and confident, but attempts to unbounce him tend to be fruitless.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are a positive and confident person. You feel capable of dealing with anything and everything, and funnily enough, you usually ARE. You don't worry about much, and you love to go out and find new adventures.

Your friends and family might sometimes be a little exasperated by your boundless enthusiasm. You don't like to admit your mistakes, and when you find yourself in over you head, you tend to bluff your way out of things. You would be surprised, however, at how happy the people around you would be if you would actually admit to a mistake. It would make you seem more human, somehow.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(wolfcaroling)
rflong: (Minoan)
( Jan. 23rd, 2008 10:02 am)
[livejournal.com profile] ericreynolds has the TOC for Ruins Metropolis up here. I'm rather excited about this! :D Can't wait until its out!

-----------------------------

In other writing news, I heard back from an agent last night. Not a yes, don't get excited. But a very pleasant and encouraging response to a query, with the comment that I might send in my urban fantasy (Moy Tura) and paranormal romance (To Regain Heaven) when they are ready as those fields are more to their interest at the moment. What an incentive to get some work done! Guess what I'll be doing from tonight on! :D

-----------------------------------

Very upset to hear about Heath Ledger. I remember watching Roar and he just sparkled in every scene. I only just found Ten Things I Hate About You in one of our moving boxes (where it has been for over a year!) and took it out the other night intending to watch it while Hubby is away. Sad now!

-----------------------------------

As my son told me the other night, its only "2 more sleeps" until my hubby comes home.

R

rflong: (Maggie Cheung Hero)
( Dec. 12th, 2007 09:45 am)

I took the day off yesterday. So did my husband. The reason? Christmas shopping in the city centre without children. This also turned into a very nice brunch, followed not too long afterwards by a very nice lunch and lots of us time. 

Dublin has not changed much. Granted, it was a Tuesday morning/lunchtime so it was not manic. Here, in no particular order are the highlights:

We went to the Kilkenny Design centre, a shop one cannot enter with a three year old and a six year old - not if you want to come out again with anything still resembling a bank balance. There is lots of pottery and crystal and expensive breakable things. We had pancakes, bacon and maple syrup in the café there whilst looking out at Trinity and over at the large mosaic/mural on the wall of the Setanta centre. It depicts the life of Cú Chulainn and basically gave me a couple of great ideas for Moy Tura. I think I will have to return with a camera, but I can see one of my major characters looking at it and being rather upset about the depiction of her husband, and another character having a fit because she appears to have lost her top whilst horse-riding! :D

Temple Bar was very quiet when we walked through it, although the clown in full costume and make-up chasing a man in boxers around the Central Bank was entertaining. Not sure what they were doing or why. It didn't seem to be a show. Just... a clown in full costume and make-up chasing a man in boxers around the Central Bank. But there you go.

Past Times was having a pre-Christmas sale. Everywhere seems to be. No one seems as interested in shopping for Christmas this year. I'm putting it down to the whole "having no summer at all" malais that seems to have gripped the nation. Two full months of rain when you wanted sun will do that to anyone. We're all sick, there are strains of the cold and flu that wouldn't be amiss in a Science Fiction Disaster movie, and the economy is as wobbly as anyone so all the shops are desperately trying to make people spend money anyway they can. One of the major chains of department stores (Irish people-how do you explain Dunnes to non-Irish people?) had a 25% sale all weekend on everything instore. It was great. That said, I talked to a shop assistant there and he said it had still been really really quiet. This was in their flagship store.

The National Library were doing their bit to boost sales too - a free copy of Treasures of the National Library to anyone who spent more than €20. They gave us a free tote bag too. So that's another Christmas present sorted!!! (And no, the person getting it doesn't read this. Btw I'm keeping the tote bag!)

We had lunch in L'Gueuleton a wondrous French bistro on Fade Street, just above the Georges St. Arcade and Market. It is one of the top three restaurants in Dublin. (We've now eaten in two of them and have no wish to spend €40 on soup in the other one!). I had soup - French Onion Soup with a Grueyre Croute (I'm sure I haven't spelled that right!). I only each French Onion Soup in French restaraunts and it was phenomenal! Real comfort food! Big thick slices of homemade bread. YUM. Hubbie had a paté which was also YUM! All in all delice. We shared desert. Home made Ice cream (a scoop of Toffee and Pistachio, Vanilla and Pomegranate, and Passion fruit sorbet, served with a raspberry cookie and (we suspect alcoholic) jelly! Mega YUM! Then coffee. Good coffee. More accurately - excellent petit café creme!

Ok, as 

[livejournal.com profile] matociquala 

 would say, enough food porn.

We meandered back. Went to my favorite bookshop where I spent some time picking out the books from people I have talked to here and turning them cover out for all the world to see. A small and petty, but extremely satisfying hobby. I just hope someone will do the same for me one day! (Of course if I was working in the bookshop and trying to keep the shelves all neat and orderly I would HATE me!)

The newbie sales person in the bookshop told me that they didn't do a discount for members of the Library Association of Ireland. Foolish foolish newbie! A few minutes later, we left with our 10% discount on our pile of books and caught the Luas home, all happy and satisfied.

 Then we had to pick up the kids, so that was a dose of reality, wasn't it?

Still, we got some things done, got ideas for the rest, so Christmas appears to be underway after all.

Wow! I had no idea this was going to be such a long post. I blame the clown and the mostly naked man.

R

rflong: (Plotbunny)
( Dec. 6th, 2007 10:14 am)
In some ways I'v e ben quite hard at work on the old writing.

Draft 2 of To Regain Heaven is coming along nicely (ie I am typing it up!) and I have about 40% of it on the pewter now (according to the Zokutou wordmeter), A further two chapters have gone off to my CP (Hi!) and my husband has read them too (he liked. High praise!) I should get more of that done tonight.

I (finally) posted the next bit of Moy Tura on NB - Chapter 17 (I write VERY short chapters at the moment). In which bad things happen to good and innocent people. All bystanders trashed. Isn't it always the way! 


I will seriously have to do some more work on this as I think the next scene is going to involve Maeve and they are never easy. I need a Fionn and Emer scene too. But Maeve is more fun to write. She's nasty.

Main problem at the moment is that I have got to stop going into Notebored and editing the piece! It's a really bad habit, but once I look at it and see a nit I have to fix it!!! Jeeze, I'm even doing it now.

Tonight I should have some time. Last night we finished repairing the bath. Tomorrow night is my work party. Then on Saturday we have the kids party thrown by my husband's work. This is usually enormous fun, totally chaotic and really really exhausting. We're also hoping to get our Christmas Tree in the morning. At the same time I will need to order my meat from the butcher. God alone knows when I will manage to get the cake ingredients, but I'd better do it soon or no cake! And that would not go down well at all.

R
1 draft down. Who knows how many more to go.  I finished the last scene of To Regain Heaven last night (in first draft longhand, lying in bed and trying not to fall asleep. No wait, that makes it sound boring and it isn't boring. But it was exhausting!)

So the creature stands at just under 50k words which isn't bad as a first draft for me. I do tend to run to the school of "just write something down and come back to it later if you're stuck".  This can lead to some very short scenes and copious notes in the margins saying things like "Change Finbar and Úna to Fionuala and Aidan", and "A happens, then B, then C" or even "Go back and make sure his car is outside the house and not abandoned three miles down the road or the quick getaway will involve a long walk". (Ok, it actually says something like "RETRO: Car should be here." but that probably doesn't make a lot of sense without context.) This also falls into the school of "how do I get them out of here? RUN!" which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Quick writing. LOADS of editing.

I got horribly stuck on the final scene sad to say. It was kind of an anticlimax to reach it. So, he doesn't go away afterall but she thinks he has and is very said. But THEN he walks into the room. HEA! It's a bit lame. I mentioned this to wonderful husband, trying not to give away plot points as he is going to have to read this. I will make him! :D And he came up with a lovely, magical way to have him arrive, which I am using and I am very happy with. All right, they still talk far too much, but that's nothing judicious use of a delete key can't handle.

So now I will have to (a) type this up as Draft 2 and then see how long it is, followed by the editing, layering etc and (b) start to seriously look at Moy Tura Echoes again. I've been trying to block out some of the scenes for that. I think next is another Maeve one, which should please some of the NB critique group.

The sad news is my other critique group seems to be crumbling around us. There are only three of us at the moment. My concern is that if we do start to take breaks we will not get up and running again. The last time it took about a year. Very frustrating! 

Anyway, I think I have earned a little bit of a break in my writing (although I will probably type tonight, while watching tv though, which doesn't really count as creative). Writing To Regain Heaven so quickly (for me - a first draft in about seven and a half weeks is VERY quickly) has left me a bit washed out. It is far from perfect (VERY VERY far) but I am quite proud of it. I have not really planned a novel in this manner before - writing a paragraph for each chapter and allowing it to flow from there. But the method certainly seems to have worked in terms of just getting the words out and down on paper. I will try again shortly I am sure. I already have some ideas.

However, priorities are as follows:
Draft 2
Moy Tura Echoes

And then some other stories I have hanging around that need to get edited - The Wolf's Sister, for example!

It's too easy to get carried away and end up not finishing anything. Far too easy.

R

but given the new people in the novel group on NB, I have been reviewing Moy Tura Echoes and have come to a scary conclusion. It might be too short!

I can't say for sure. (At the moment it certainly is but that's because I only have a first draft from long ago and scatty notes). But the chapters are short for me. The pace is pretty quick. Things are happening at the moment at a rate of knots (or nots, of naughts, not sure how to spell that). And and and...

Ok, it probably is paranoia. I can make it as long as I need to. I can go back and expand on earlier chapters. I can give more background, history etc. There is one thing people rarely mention when writing: that is, how daunting a novel can be. I've completed two (four if you count A Dream of the West as the trilogy it probably is). They never seemed as difficult as this one. Am I putting more into Moy Tura than I did into the others? Well A Dream of the West only took four years to get into a full draft (which I thought was ready - foolish me!) and The Penitent is just a weird book in that it flowed (much as To Regain Heaven appears to be doing - hope I don't jinx it by saying that). True, I have three major WIPs on the go right now, but I always wrote other things in tandem before. I think its a harder novel to write. But why? 

"Real life" setting - it can be hard to bring in that much reality without starting to fact-check constantly. 

The concepts involved - sometimes I think I have them all worked out, sometimes I reread and go either "huh?" or "did I write that?" and my favorite so far "how on earth did you ever think THAT would work?"

The characters - often refuse to do what they are told and come up with their own ideas - I am not kidding!  I can see why I portray them as belligerant, self-centred and just plain stubborn - THEY ARE!

Arrghhhghhghhh....  *pause for deep breath*

I need to take a step back again and look at the "overview" (there isn't one of course, but there are some scribbled notes somewhere. I have a plan, I tell you. I have a plan.)

Racing on with To Regain Heaven - into Chapter 4. Also a bit on the short side. I seem to be writing short chapters these days. But as long as the story wants to flow I will let it do so and worry about making it work later. 

Hmm, maybe that's what I need to do with Moy Tura as well. So frustrating.

R

Seriously. It's a lot better, but the cautionary tale for all is when you have a niggly cough for a long time do go and get it sorted out by your GP and don't think it will go away by itself because it won't. It'll hang around and irritate your chest until you can't get rid of it, can't breathe properly and pass out if you do too much.

I got back to work yesterday and was generally met with people going "Are you sure you're ok?"

I did a fair bit of editing last night, taking a pen to both The Wolf's Sister and Old Friends. Having taken them apart, I hope to try slotting them back together this evening. I will also be writing more of the romance - tentatively titled To Regain Heaven. Moy Tura Echoes is getting some fresh critting on NB and seems to be going down well - yay! People like the way I write Maeve, which is worrying, to say the least. :D She's not nice.

Now I am off to do a crit (or part of a crit) before my tea break is over. Then it is back to cataloguing Italian Mariology books which came in from the Marianum. I now have really useful phrases if I ever get back to Italy such as "La Vergine Madre nella Chiesa delle Origini" and "Nuove prospettive della mariologia". Yay! 

On the other hand, I don't have to move around much, so not much chance of unconsciousness. :D

It will get better. It isn't permanent. I can already feel improvement. Honest!

.

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