Plot, plot, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is
I'm a little worried about using the word "epiphany" here, lest I jinx myself. In fact, I should probably just continue to keep my mouth mostly shut about it, but I can't help myself. Because last night as I was driving to meet Debbie for coffee, a few things clicked in my brain and I could suddenly see the shape of a sequel to "Mockingbird."
I've had ideas for months--snippets of flashbacks and scenes set x months in the future; thoughts on where people are, geographically and emotionally, and what they're doing there; I've hashed out an opening scene that sets up some stuff I'm pretty pleased with, both in terms of how it came out and what it establishes. But I've been unable to answer the fundamental question of what the heck happens and why, which is kind of important.
Last night I figured it out. Or, like, 70 percent of it, anyway. Weeks of stewing over it and talking about various questions with fangirls seems to have paid off, and I now know the basic start-to-finish plot of the thing. I woke up this morning with two scenes nearly fully formed in my head, which was ridiculously heartening, since that's exactly what happened to me the first time around. I got up, made myself some coffee, and sat on the bed in the sunroom and brain dumped into my new notebook.
Of course now I'm looking (figuratively, of course) at this and thinking, "Are you fucking nuts? It took you eight months last time around, and you were only in school for one and a half of those months." I've got something like four betas going, a case file story two-thirds done, another one stalled out right as I'd gotten past the (copious) initial exposition, victim of "Mockingbird," a final project due the fifth, a final exam due two weeks after that, holiday shopping and travel, and then another 14-week course starting in January. Not to mention this lingering fear that I'm going to become one of those authors who only ever writes in their one crazy universe. I feel like the Cowardly Lion looking at the Wicked Witch's castle, sucking up all my guts for the attack and then begging my friends to talk me out of it.
Okay. Thanks for letting me dump that here. I think the only thing for me right now is to shower and get ready for blaurosen's arrival. We're gonna go look at some art and holiday stuff downtown. I'll think about all of this again tonight. And tomorrow I WILL work on my final project and get that out of the way.
I've had ideas for months--snippets of flashbacks and scenes set x months in the future; thoughts on where people are, geographically and emotionally, and what they're doing there; I've hashed out an opening scene that sets up some stuff I'm pretty pleased with, both in terms of how it came out and what it establishes. But I've been unable to answer the fundamental question of what the heck happens and why, which is kind of important.
Last night I figured it out. Or, like, 70 percent of it, anyway. Weeks of stewing over it and talking about various questions with fangirls seems to have paid off, and I now know the basic start-to-finish plot of the thing. I woke up this morning with two scenes nearly fully formed in my head, which was ridiculously heartening, since that's exactly what happened to me the first time around. I got up, made myself some coffee, and sat on the bed in the sunroom and brain dumped into my new notebook.
Of course now I'm looking (figuratively, of course) at this and thinking, "Are you fucking nuts? It took you eight months last time around, and you were only in school for one and a half of those months." I've got something like four betas going, a case file story two-thirds done, another one stalled out right as I'd gotten past the (copious) initial exposition, victim of "Mockingbird," a final project due the fifth, a final exam due two weeks after that, holiday shopping and travel, and then another 14-week course starting in January. Not to mention this lingering fear that I'm going to become one of those authors who only ever writes in their one crazy universe. I feel like the Cowardly Lion looking at the Wicked Witch's castle, sucking up all my guts for the attack and then begging my friends to talk me out of it.
Okay. Thanks for letting me dump that here. I think the only thing for me right now is to shower and get ready for blaurosen's arrival. We're gonna go look at some art and holiday stuff downtown. I'll think about all of this again tonight. And tomorrow I WILL work on my final project and get that out of the way.