Writing Miscellany
A bit of a tough writing day. Revisions are making me happy, but I hit a pair of difficult chapters. The first tells of a massacre that wasn't supposed to happen. The second includes grieving for another dead character while caring for the body. The recurring images, the snapshot memories, that pop into my mind have not been pleasant.
This is different from grief. At least, I think it's different. It centers on visual memories of the event rather than missing the person who died. But I don't know what I'd call it.
I write about this stuff because I'm trying to figure it out, and because I know it's affecting my writing choices--not because I'm seeking sympathy. I'm not depressed, or even feeling especially bad. I'm feeling...out of step and unsettled. And very, very glad I'm past those scenes.
One more awful scene comes up before the end of the book. Just one more--in addition to all the other revisions--before I can call it done and place it in the hands of betas.
In the meantime, I should have more time tonight. I'm down to about 31K remaining from the draft. The end is in sight. The next project is waiting. I'm getting impatient, and forcing myself to be meticulous rather than speedy.
Omni aside: One of the advantages of omni pov is the ability to shift focus without chopping the writing up with scene and chapter breaks. I find I toss that advantage out the window when writing combat scenes. In those cases, the chops give me the pacing I want.
Completely unrelated: A hawk perched on the porch right outside my window earlier. I had the passing consideration of what the neighbors might think if I fashioned a hawk feeder to go beside the standard seed dispenser. Then I thought of what a hawk feeder would need to be filled with, and promptly lost interest.
And on the off chance someone reads here who doesn't read there: jimhines has a cool discussion going about writing and martial arts.
That is all. I'm off to get a tad more done before taking Dev to his final driver's ed class, then coming home to work a little more.