an awful lot of writing isn't actually writing, you know
This evening I decided to do some concrete outlining of "Sunbright and Shadowfall" (working title of my Sleeping-Beauty-plus-lesbians-plus-world-conquest story), which has proved... um... interesting? I conceived it as a strict alternating-POV story, which creates some odd imbalances in narrative weight at various points. Writing up an outline also made me aware that I hadn't thought much about what Sunbright was doing before the spindle curse, beyond her interactions with Shadowfall. And then there's the obvious problem of having a POV character who's stuck in enchanted slumber for six years or so -- I mean, that's where the dreamwalking trope comes in, but that can't kick in for a long while, partly because of id-tastic trope reasons, but also because I want to keep dreamwalking as a very rare and dangerous thing that is next to impossible to learn.
Anyway, the story seems to be dividing itself into four general sections: childhood, the curse, separation, and war. I have a pretty solid outline for the first two (chapter 1-9), and some general ideas for the third (chapter 10-??), but I'm completely lost on the fourth. I think I won't be able to pin it down until I've done more world-building and also gotten to know the characters better. I mean, I have a general handle on Shadowfall, Sunbright, and Shadowfall's aunt Greenleaf, but I don't know anything much about Sunbright's family, or all the other people they must logically interact with over the course of, let's say, fifteen years or so. I know that endgame is the end of the Shining Ones' ability to do whatever they want to the world, but there are a lot of different ways to achieve that goal, and which one the characters choose (and how well it works) depends on a lot of factors I have yet to solidify out of the nebulous cloud of potential narrative options.
But hey, knowing what I don't know is progress in and of itself! I've been working on this story mostly by using it as my "thing to ponder while falling asleep" for the past couple months, which has helped me solve some logistical issues, pin down some mechanics of magic, and sort of nebulously sketch some personal and political complications for Sunbright to deal with. Now I have new areas to focus on. :-)
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Anyway, the story seems to be dividing itself into four general sections: childhood, the curse, separation, and war. I have a pretty solid outline for the first two (chapter 1-9), and some general ideas for the third (chapter 10-??), but I'm completely lost on the fourth. I think I won't be able to pin it down until I've done more world-building and also gotten to know the characters better. I mean, I have a general handle on Shadowfall, Sunbright, and Shadowfall's aunt Greenleaf, but I don't know anything much about Sunbright's family, or all the other people they must logically interact with over the course of, let's say, fifteen years or so. I know that endgame is the end of the Shining Ones' ability to do whatever they want to the world, but there are a lot of different ways to achieve that goal, and which one the characters choose (and how well it works) depends on a lot of factors I have yet to solidify out of the nebulous cloud of potential narrative options.
But hey, knowing what I don't know is progress in and of itself! I've been working on this story mostly by using it as my "thing to ponder while falling asleep" for the past couple months, which has helped me solve some logistical issues, pin down some mechanics of magic, and sort of nebulously sketch some personal and political complications for Sunbright to deal with. Now I have new areas to focus on. :-)
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)