surprise! it's writing blathering again!
It is after midnight and I am giddy with that giddy feeling one gets when one suddenly discovers that one is not quite as miserable as one spent much of the day being. What does this inspire me to do? Why, blather on about my NaNo, of course! (What ought I to call it now, anyway? Any work I do from here on after will not be NaNoage as such, but 'the Evangeline project' is only any good as a Livejournal tag, and I won't have a title for it until I have written a whole draft or two and discover what it is really about.)
bonny_kathryn replied to my "HERE IS MY BATTERED SHAMBLES OF A STORY PLEASE SEND HELP" email with some questions and thoughts that had my little brain-cogs whirling round again, only ... thus far in a very unproductive manner. (A too-substantial amount of these thoughts run a bit like this: 'oh dear, half of her questions are my questions too! why on earth did this person do that? why do I know nothing? DRAT YOU CHARACTERS ALL.') Also I am reading a book called Encyclopedia of the End: Mysterious Death in Fact, Fancy, Folklore, and More, which is very very fascinating and has lots of interesting folklorey bits though not much on vampires I haven't already heard often and in more detail but anyway.
(Oh oh oh and speaking of folklore my current favourite?: stealing the left sock of a vampire and filling it with things and then throwing it into the nearest river. The vampire, who is clearly obsessive-compulsive, will then leap into the river to retrieve it, and will then ... drown? I don't know. [Vampires wear socks? Did anyone ever see Angel wear socks? Perhaps socks are like the pyjamas that NO VAMPIRE POSSESSES.] Folklore is awesome, you guys.)
Hey, look how far I have got without blathering about the Story! Perhaps if I stop now everyone can breathe a great sigh of relief and go home?
(TOO BAD.)
Things that have been running around my head quite a lot lately: Tam-Lin (... because that's, you know, not usual for me), and Mr Caruthers. Not necessarily in a connected way, and I have decided quite firmly that this novel is not going to be a retelling of Tam-Lin because a Tam-Lin with vampires in it is such a thoroughly delightful idea (and look, it totally works, even!) that I must save it for a story that can centre on that instead of having so many other things going on as this one does. Tam-Lin, because when i was writing bits down and trying to memorise it so that I can add it to my Repertoire of Songs With Which To While Away The Lonely Hours At Work (it gets stuck in my head a lot cos Fairport Convention's version is so dratted catchy, but I only know the first three verses by heart and some scattery other ones, mostly because of how they figured prominently in fic I wrote) AND ANYWAY, the bit -- And at the end of seven years / We pay a tithe to Hell / I am so fair and full of flesh / I fear it be myself -- caught my interest, and tugged a bit. Because it's an interesting thought -- a reason vampires could be interested in Evangeline and/or Mr Caruthers is because they need a tithe/sacrifice of some sort? (Not Mr Caruthers Back Then, because fifteen years or so is a long time to wait to sacrifice someone even when you do have ritual dates and things. Anyway I think part of Back Then and its importance to everyone involved was that somehow young Owen Caruthers had some sort of rapport with the/some vampires.)
Scribbley bit in my (black and hot pink Victorian wallpaper) notebook: Vampires want something from someone. Evy or Mr Caruthers? One of them has or is something which ties, whether directly or indirectly, into the reason for the vampires' unrest. In some ways it would suit best for Evy to be the tithe -- storyseeing? [which, being somehow triggered by blood, works alongside with lightofjudah's very brilliant idea of vampires consuming memories through blood] -- but that would likely rob her of agency, and a climax without protagonist agency is no good at all. For Mr Caruthers to be the tithe would make the most narrative/symbolic sense: bringing his youthful degeneracy full-circle. Or: Evy and Mr Caruthers together make some whole that the vampires want/need? [Only if it is not a silly True Love Makes Stuff Blow Up, which -- irks me most of the time. Very few people ever manage to do it decently.]
Also: Mr Caruthers' Sordid Past (still my favourite Victorian punk band) seems to be the or a key to the story? I feel as though I need to settle it before I can write the story again: certainly before I write him any more. His now-self and past-self are too different; they need to bleed into each other a little more obviously, though not so much that Evy isn't somewhat shocked when the past asserts itself.
His predominate characteristic, his driving force seems to be guilt. (...why hello there ANGEL dear me.) However he seems to drive himself more for penance than redemption. The Past: opium, black magic, vampires, the seduction of highborn women (this got you into a lot of trouble in those days). Someone dies? Somehow during this time he gains an unusual understanding of vampires, which alerts the Ministry of the Paranormal (stop me if you've already heard this six times), who bail him out of said considerable trouble by press-ganging him. At this point he is still rebellious and not altogether a fantastic bloke but Traumatising Event eventually sobers him and sends him into penance forever and ever augh no people ever again ever. He does a lot for the Ministry even while disagreeing with them quite a lot because he feels it is the least he can do; he became a librarian mostly because it was the sort of thing he had been expected to do before and now he is utterly renouncing the old life. Only later he realises how much he loves being a librarian and feels rather bad about it. (I SHOULD HAVE BEEN A GREENGROCER. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DULLER AND MORE PENANCEY.) Also: [note from at work] Black magic leaves 'residue'. One can never really get rid of it; he still has not-very-severable links to vast, barely controllable, unpleasant sorts of power. This is his primary reason for rarely connecting with people; because there is a very real change he may endanger them -- it isn't even impulses he can control (I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU BROUGHT THAT BOOK BACK STUCK TOGETHER WITH TOFFEE YOU DEGENERATE [accidentally sets said toffee-eating degenerate on fire]), it is just there, and not at all of the good (being ... black magic and all; how marvellous I am at explaining myself).
... I think Dad wishes for me to depart for bed now. Although I have lots more I could say, about What My Vampires Are and Things I Don't Understand About My Characters and Guess What I Put Some Hyphens Back Today!. (But I was blaring Lisa Hannigan a bit ago, and he was singing along -- not in a knowing-the-words sense, but snapping his fingers and humming and things, and it was very sweet.)
bonny_kathryn replied to my "HERE IS MY BATTERED SHAMBLES OF A STORY PLEASE SEND HELP" email with some questions and thoughts that had my little brain-cogs whirling round again, only ... thus far in a very unproductive manner. (A too-substantial amount of these thoughts run a bit like this: 'oh dear, half of her questions are my questions too! why on earth did this person do that? why do I know nothing? DRAT YOU CHARACTERS ALL.') Also I am reading a book called Encyclopedia of the End: Mysterious Death in Fact, Fancy, Folklore, and More, which is very very fascinating and has lots of interesting folklorey bits though not much on vampires I haven't already heard often and in more detail but anyway.
(Oh oh oh and speaking of folklore my current favourite?: stealing the left sock of a vampire and filling it with things and then throwing it into the nearest river. The vampire, who is clearly obsessive-compulsive, will then leap into the river to retrieve it, and will then ... drown? I don't know. [Vampires wear socks? Did anyone ever see Angel wear socks? Perhaps socks are like the pyjamas that NO VAMPIRE POSSESSES.] Folklore is awesome, you guys.)
Hey, look how far I have got without blathering about the Story! Perhaps if I stop now everyone can breathe a great sigh of relief and go home?
(TOO BAD.)
Things that have been running around my head quite a lot lately: Tam-Lin (... because that's, you know, not usual for me), and Mr Caruthers. Not necessarily in a connected way, and I have decided quite firmly that this novel is not going to be a retelling of Tam-Lin because a Tam-Lin with vampires in it is such a thoroughly delightful idea (and look, it totally works, even!) that I must save it for a story that can centre on that instead of having so many other things going on as this one does. Tam-Lin, because when i was writing bits down and trying to memorise it so that I can add it to my Repertoire of Songs With Which To While Away The Lonely Hours At Work (it gets stuck in my head a lot cos Fairport Convention's version is so dratted catchy, but I only know the first three verses by heart and some scattery other ones, mostly because of how they figured prominently in fic I wrote) AND ANYWAY, the bit -- And at the end of seven years / We pay a tithe to Hell / I am so fair and full of flesh / I fear it be myself -- caught my interest, and tugged a bit. Because it's an interesting thought -- a reason vampires could be interested in Evangeline and/or Mr Caruthers is because they need a tithe/sacrifice of some sort? (Not Mr Caruthers Back Then, because fifteen years or so is a long time to wait to sacrifice someone even when you do have ritual dates and things. Anyway I think part of Back Then and its importance to everyone involved was that somehow young Owen Caruthers had some sort of rapport with the/some vampires.)
Scribbley bit in my (black and hot pink Victorian wallpaper) notebook: Vampires want something from someone. Evy or Mr Caruthers? One of them has or is something which ties, whether directly or indirectly, into the reason for the vampires' unrest. In some ways it would suit best for Evy to be the tithe -- storyseeing? [which, being somehow triggered by blood, works alongside with lightofjudah's very brilliant idea of vampires consuming memories through blood] -- but that would likely rob her of agency, and a climax without protagonist agency is no good at all. For Mr Caruthers to be the tithe would make the most narrative/symbolic sense: bringing his youthful degeneracy full-circle. Or: Evy and Mr Caruthers together make some whole that the vampires want/need? [Only if it is not a silly True Love Makes Stuff Blow Up, which -- irks me most of the time. Very few people ever manage to do it decently.]
Also: Mr Caruthers' Sordid Past (still my favourite Victorian punk band) seems to be the or a key to the story? I feel as though I need to settle it before I can write the story again: certainly before I write him any more. His now-self and past-self are too different; they need to bleed into each other a little more obviously, though not so much that Evy isn't somewhat shocked when the past asserts itself.
His predominate characteristic, his driving force seems to be guilt. (...why hello there ANGEL dear me.) However he seems to drive himself more for penance than redemption. The Past: opium, black magic, vampires, the seduction of highborn women (this got you into a lot of trouble in those days). Someone dies? Somehow during this time he gains an unusual understanding of vampires, which alerts the Ministry of the Paranormal (stop me if you've already heard this six times), who bail him out of said considerable trouble by press-ganging him. At this point he is still rebellious and not altogether a fantastic bloke but Traumatising Event eventually sobers him and sends him into penance forever and ever augh no people ever again ever. He does a lot for the Ministry even while disagreeing with them quite a lot because he feels it is the least he can do; he became a librarian mostly because it was the sort of thing he had been expected to do before and now he is utterly renouncing the old life. Only later he realises how much he loves being a librarian and feels rather bad about it. (I SHOULD HAVE BEEN A GREENGROCER. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DULLER AND MORE PENANCEY.) Also: [note from at work] Black magic leaves 'residue'. One can never really get rid of it; he still has not-very-severable links to vast, barely controllable, unpleasant sorts of power. This is his primary reason for rarely connecting with people; because there is a very real change he may endanger them -- it isn't even impulses he can control (I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU BROUGHT THAT BOOK BACK STUCK TOGETHER WITH TOFFEE YOU DEGENERATE [accidentally sets said toffee-eating degenerate on fire]), it is just there, and not at all of the good (being ... black magic and all; how marvellous I am at explaining myself).
... I think Dad wishes for me to depart for bed now. Although I have lots more I could say, about What My Vampires Are and Things I Don't Understand About My Characters and Guess What I Put Some Hyphens Back Today!. (But I was blaring Lisa Hannigan a bit ago, and he was singing along -- not in a knowing-the-words sense, but snapping his fingers and humming and things, and it was very sweet.)