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Feb. 8th, 2006 08:38 amMy stories have this really, really bad habit of not leaving poor me alone. For the most part, it's stories refusing to end, like "An Affair of Blood" and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels. But also it's stuff like last night.
Last night I perfectly innocently told my friend I was going to bed around midnight, and I perfectly innocently attempted to. And failed.
Two and a half hours later, after reorganizing and editing the prologue and first two chapters of AAoB to match the potential book format, I was finally so exhausted that I had to go to bed because I couldn't concentrate enough to do anymore. I barely managed to figure out about where to end the first flashback, and I'm still too tired to tell if I did anything right at all. But if I hadn't been too exhausted to continue, I swear my writer's urge would have pushed me until I either finished it or had to leave in the morning, whichever came first (and given this story's quality of refusing to be finished with, the "leaving in the morning" would probably have come first). In fact, I came out sorely disappointed that I couldn't do that.
Ugh...
What was I doing until midnight, exactly, anyway? Reading my friend's typed-up rough draft chapters of her book. She's a damn good writer, though of course there's plenty of spelling errors and stylistic changes she'll have to make, and her being a good writer doesn't mean I don't have suggestions. I'm amazed at her propensity for, unlike most fantasy authors, researching things. The main character gets knocked out with a big rock by his friend, he gets a concussion, by George (note: George is not a character), and the symptoms of his concussion are researched for accuracy. The weight of swords hasn't come up yet, and probably won't come up, but I bet that if it did, she's not going to be like all the other idiot fantasy authors (including Tamora Pierce, much as I loved "Trickster's Choice"), in overestimating the weight of period swords. Then again, that would probably be because I insisted on having her read an article all about it.
I also enjoy how she makes it so you have no clue what's going to happen next, and so things and events take you by total surprise. And I get quite amused when I tell her formerly-naive-to-yaoi self how all the yaoi fans are going to interpret this, and this, and this, and this... She got freaked out about it for a while, so I told her to calm down, close her eyes, and imagine Allen and Lawrence (two PotC/AAoB characters) kissing. *wink* That seemed to work.
The characterization's pretty good, too, everyone's rather even and balanced and very few appear to be one-sided. The main characters, especially, are quite Non-Suey. Hell, you spend the first several chapters thinking that one of the main characters is going to become a minor villain. Not to mention that the first chapter introduces the main main character via a rather unflattering bartender's description.
I can't wait to see where this story of hers goes. Anyway, I'd talk more, maybe about how I sent Mik into such a huge laughing fit she started coughing and turning, as Jaz described it, "lobster red", but, as Gackt's bodyguard said, "it's time to go". Ta!!!
Last night I perfectly innocently told my friend I was going to bed around midnight, and I perfectly innocently attempted to. And failed.
Two and a half hours later, after reorganizing and editing the prologue and first two chapters of AAoB to match the potential book format, I was finally so exhausted that I had to go to bed because I couldn't concentrate enough to do anymore. I barely managed to figure out about where to end the first flashback, and I'm still too tired to tell if I did anything right at all. But if I hadn't been too exhausted to continue, I swear my writer's urge would have pushed me until I either finished it or had to leave in the morning, whichever came first (and given this story's quality of refusing to be finished with, the "leaving in the morning" would probably have come first). In fact, I came out sorely disappointed that I couldn't do that.
Ugh...
What was I doing until midnight, exactly, anyway? Reading my friend's typed-up rough draft chapters of her book. She's a damn good writer, though of course there's plenty of spelling errors and stylistic changes she'll have to make, and her being a good writer doesn't mean I don't have suggestions. I'm amazed at her propensity for, unlike most fantasy authors, researching things. The main character gets knocked out with a big rock by his friend, he gets a concussion, by George (note: George is not a character), and the symptoms of his concussion are researched for accuracy. The weight of swords hasn't come up yet, and probably won't come up, but I bet that if it did, she's not going to be like all the other idiot fantasy authors (including Tamora Pierce, much as I loved "Trickster's Choice"), in overestimating the weight of period swords. Then again, that would probably be because I insisted on having her read an article all about it.
I also enjoy how she makes it so you have no clue what's going to happen next, and so things and events take you by total surprise. And I get quite amused when I tell her formerly-naive-to-yaoi self how all the yaoi fans are going to interpret this, and this, and this, and this... She got freaked out about it for a while, so I told her to calm down, close her eyes, and imagine Allen and Lawrence (two PotC/AAoB characters) kissing. *wink* That seemed to work.
The characterization's pretty good, too, everyone's rather even and balanced and very few appear to be one-sided. The main characters, especially, are quite Non-Suey. Hell, you spend the first several chapters thinking that one of the main characters is going to become a minor villain. Not to mention that the first chapter introduces the main main character via a rather unflattering bartender's description.
I can't wait to see where this story of hers goes. Anyway, I'd talk more, maybe about how I sent Mik into such a huge laughing fit she started coughing and turning, as Jaz described it, "lobster red", but, as Gackt's bodyguard said, "it's time to go". Ta!!!
