Just a quick note about "Holy Spirit" before I hit the hay
I'm sitting here, typing up what I wrote on my breaks at work today, and my rough draft is cracking me up.
I haven't decided on a lot of the names for characters and places in the story. I don't even really know what part of Wales it's set in, other than that it's somewhere in the southeast*. Why the southeast? It's what seemed right when I thought about it. My heartsong told me! *tear* I'll probably end up changing my mind.
Anyway, I haven't decided what a lot of the castles are called and what the "last names" of any of the characters are. So there's a lot of "Margarethe, daughter of Rhys WELSH GUY" in my writing. Or "Gwillym has promised his niece UNCLE GWILLYM'S CASTLE as a dowry. You will marry at RHYS WELSH GUY'S PLACE. But first you need to find your brother Nicholas to act as a witness. He's in WELSH TOWN WITH A WHOREHOUSE OR AN INN WITH WHORES." All this all-caps, no name stuff is making me giggle. I get bizarrely detailed with it, and it often acts as a placeholder for plot ideas and intentions.
That last one isn't a direct quote, by the way, though it is paraphrased from actual occurrences in the writing. Which is really goddamn bad writing, by the way. Reading what I've written is a little bit like dragging your face against a cheese grater -- it's a relief when you stop, but the pain lingers.
So, I need to figure out what Welsh town, with a whorehouse or possessing an inn with whores, Nicholas can be kicking his heels up at. I already have a scene where Luc discovers him at the inn (whorehouse?), and is all, "You know, Nick, you're going to use yourself up on these prostitutes, and you're not going to be able to do your knightly best, because you'll have the ladies on your mind instead of hacking your foes into tiny bits." Nicholas's response is basically, "She's got a tongue like an electric eel, and she likes the taste of a man's tonsils. Woof!" And Luc is all, "Oh, Jesus. Don't make me get the hose, little brother."
Oh, god. Nicholas might be a more interesting/entertaining character than Luc. He's totally not based on Hal in "Henry IV, Part 1", by the way. Or Lord Flasheart. Trouble!
What I'm trying to do with the characters is set up Luc as the responsible, dependable brother, though he doesn't always like having to do that. His older brother, Benedick** has hared it off to a monastery where he spends all his time rooting in a garden, though Benedick was intended to be their father's heir. Nicholas is free to whore and drink and be wild, and Luc never got that opportunity because when he was Nicholas's age, he was getting a crash course in lordship after Benedick "defected". Both Benedick and Nicholas are free to follow their own whims, and Luc is saddled with responsibility and duty. The marriage and babies for politics thing is only the latest and most extreme manifestation.
*I've been Googling up a lot of pictures of Wales lately, because I don't really know what Wales looks like, as I've never been there. I know it's not arctic or desert or tundra, but I don't know much apart from it being hilly, stony with little mountains, and green. So it's coming as a big surprise to me that a lot of the pictures look a lot like southwestern Wisconsin. A lot of the pictures on this page could have been taken in our pasture or a little bit farther north, where it's hillier. (Apart from the fact that most of our hills are all-natural, and not mottes.) I'm considering making a "Wales or Wisconsin?" post, but I'm not sure if the similarity extends much past that temperate climates start to look the same when they've been farmed continuously for 100+ years.
A friend of mine from Gays Mills mentioned the same thing when she got home from a walking tour of Ireland, England and France, though, so maybe it's not just me.
**I still need to find a new name for Luc, as he's the odd man out. Benedick, Nicholas and . . . Luc. It doesn't really fit, does it?
I haven't decided on a lot of the names for characters and places in the story. I don't even really know what part of Wales it's set in, other than that it's somewhere in the southeast*. Why the southeast? It's what seemed right when I thought about it. My heartsong told me! *tear* I'll probably end up changing my mind.
Anyway, I haven't decided what a lot of the castles are called and what the "last names" of any of the characters are. So there's a lot of "Margarethe, daughter of Rhys WELSH GUY" in my writing. Or "Gwillym has promised his niece UNCLE GWILLYM'S CASTLE as a dowry. You will marry at RHYS WELSH GUY'S PLACE. But first you need to find your brother Nicholas to act as a witness. He's in WELSH TOWN WITH A WHOREHOUSE OR AN INN WITH WHORES." All this all-caps, no name stuff is making me giggle. I get bizarrely detailed with it, and it often acts as a placeholder for plot ideas and intentions.
That last one isn't a direct quote, by the way, though it is paraphrased from actual occurrences in the writing. Which is really goddamn bad writing, by the way. Reading what I've written is a little bit like dragging your face against a cheese grater -- it's a relief when you stop, but the pain lingers.
So, I need to figure out what Welsh town, with a whorehouse or possessing an inn with whores, Nicholas can be kicking his heels up at. I already have a scene where Luc discovers him at the inn (whorehouse?), and is all, "You know, Nick, you're going to use yourself up on these prostitutes, and you're not going to be able to do your knightly best, because you'll have the ladies on your mind instead of hacking your foes into tiny bits." Nicholas's response is basically, "She's got a tongue like an electric eel, and she likes the taste of a man's tonsils. Woof!" And Luc is all, "Oh, Jesus. Don't make me get the hose, little brother."
Oh, god. Nicholas might be a more interesting/entertaining character than Luc. He's totally not based on Hal in "Henry IV, Part 1", by the way. Or Lord Flasheart. Trouble!
What I'm trying to do with the characters is set up Luc as the responsible, dependable brother, though he doesn't always like having to do that. His older brother, Benedick** has hared it off to a monastery where he spends all his time rooting in a garden, though Benedick was intended to be their father's heir. Nicholas is free to whore and drink and be wild, and Luc never got that opportunity because when he was Nicholas's age, he was getting a crash course in lordship after Benedick "defected". Both Benedick and Nicholas are free to follow their own whims, and Luc is saddled with responsibility and duty. The marriage and babies for politics thing is only the latest and most extreme manifestation.
*I've been Googling up a lot of pictures of Wales lately, because I don't really know what Wales looks like, as I've never been there. I know it's not arctic or desert or tundra, but I don't know much apart from it being hilly, stony with little mountains, and green. So it's coming as a big surprise to me that a lot of the pictures look a lot like southwestern Wisconsin. A lot of the pictures on this page could have been taken in our pasture or a little bit farther north, where it's hillier. (Apart from the fact that most of our hills are all-natural, and not mottes.) I'm considering making a "Wales or Wisconsin?" post, but I'm not sure if the similarity extends much past that temperate climates start to look the same when they've been farmed continuously for 100+ years.
A friend of mine from Gays Mills mentioned the same thing when she got home from a walking tour of Ireland, England and France, though, so maybe it's not just me.
**I still need to find a new name for Luc, as he's the odd man out. Benedick, Nicholas and . . . Luc. It doesn't really fit, does it?