Writing Blockage
Not exactly writer's block, I just have this problem that I've got all these loose ends, and the chapter AFTER the Battle of the Pelennor Fields or the Flight to the Ford is always rather patchy and forgettable. Lots of character business has to happen: people putting themselves back together, checking in, finding out what happened. At the same time plot must move forward. And one can't spend too long milling around.
I found myself skipping over description of setting because I had too much Talk to fit in, then realized that a) I have talking head syndrome, and b) I gave too much description to places like Home and Djose, where only a few chapters took place, whereas I've got an awful lot of stuff happening in Bevelle and in this new Houses of Healing Yuna's Cloister I added to the geography.
The Tolkien parallels are so blinkin' obvious. It's not on purpose. I just absorbed his patterns so much they keep cropping up.
I just finished Pelennor Fields/Flight to the Ford. (Except Auron didn't quite follow Théoden's path to its end; he jumped off the Bridge at Z'Ha'Dum instead.)
I'm now at Houses of Healing/Many Meetings, which is a hard chapter to write.
Then we have the Council of Elrond / The Last Debate. And somehow, in this chapter, along with dealing with all the battle-fallout, I need to establish my Elrond figure.
So anyway. Between that and dissertation, the next chapter of LHAD may take a while.
I found myself skipping over description of setting because I had too much Talk to fit in, then realized that a) I have talking head syndrome, and b) I gave too much description to places like Home and Djose, where only a few chapters took place, whereas I've got an awful lot of stuff happening in Bevelle and in this new Houses of Healing Yuna's Cloister I added to the geography.
The Tolkien parallels are so blinkin' obvious. It's not on purpose. I just absorbed his patterns so much they keep cropping up.
I just finished Pelennor Fields/Flight to the Ford. (Except Auron didn't quite follow Théoden's path to its end; he jumped off the Bridge at Z'Ha'Dum instead.)
I'm now at Houses of Healing/Many Meetings, which is a hard chapter to write.
Then we have the Council of Elrond / The Last Debate. And somehow, in this chapter, along with dealing with all the battle-fallout, I need to establish my Elrond figure.
So anyway. Between that and dissertation, the next chapter of LHAD may take a while.