Category Archives: gothic

Homesick for fiction.

Having finished the draft of Indigo & Ink, which has occupied the last seven months of my life, I’m now feeling a bit down in the dumps. You know, I really miss writing the book. After that last edit, I had a sense of finality, and while it was very thrilling, in some ways it also left me feeling a bit empty. This probably explains why when my friend Karen mentioned she’d read some of the first chapter, I about fell out of my chair in excitement.

Yes, writers are weird. If you hadn’t figured that out yet, you just haven’t met enough of us.

Anyway, I haven’t stopped writing, but nothing’s had that zing since finishing Indigo & Ink. Though I did hit a milestone. I wrote a short story in a respectably short amount of time without freaking out and hating it–and then I actually submitted it. I’ve been writing about 1.5 short stories a year lately, which is pretty pathetic in all honesty. And I can whine all I want about it simply not being my medium, but in actuality I think short stories are a hell of a lot harder to do well than novels. For me, anyway. To develop a character in under 6,000 words terrifies me. Which probably explains why I wrote The God Who Played, aforementioned short story, in first person.

Regardless, I have some thinking to do about what to write and when to write and how to write and all. I have surgery coming up next month, and Dragon*Con before that, so tossing myself headfirst into a novel is probably not the brightest ideas.

But then again, when have I ever been one to listen to reason? ;)

Draft One, Deeper Into the Murk

So, no longer Draft Zero, eh, Indigo & Ink? This is where things get interesting.

I’m not one of those people who can let a book draft sit for terribly long. Okay, wait, no. That’s a lie. I can let it sit plenty after I’ve edited the crap out of it, but otherwise it pokes at my consciousness for days until I fix what needs fixing. We can’t always be as disciplined as Stephen King, and if we all wrote the same the world would be boring (or… something?). When I finished Indigo & Ink, I was in the zone, so I decided to keep going.

The draft, at one point, was almost 125K, and that worried me. My goal was originally 120, and I’m hoping the very final one will be even a little slimmer. Words don’t matter so much as content, true, but a more slender book has a better chance. (And yes, 120K is slender to me!) At this moment it’s about 119,500 words, and is comprised of 50 chapters (I would say the chapters are that way because I planned them, but I didn’t; still, the symmetry nut in me is insanely glad to end in a nice, round number).

Editing this time around was quite curious. Because the book essentially has a novella folded into the mix (a bit like baking a good cake) I attacked it in two parts. I edited everyone else’s story, then went after Dev. Dev, as I’ve mentioned a thousand times, travels through eight hells in the course of the book. And I made a big choice. I changed all his hell chapters to the present tense. Most of the 5K that I lost was in those chapters, because they’re supposed to be terribly otherwordly and strange. I realized I couldn’t get Dev’s POV as close as the other characters, because the rules simply don’t apply. And for whatever reason, present tense can really add distance. I think it works. We’ll see what my beta readers have to say.

So, overall impressions now that the book is at this state:

Things I Love: I am very proud of the dialogue in this book. I only have a few characters who really go on at length, but the situation typically calls for it. The tension is palpable in the scenes they need to be, the language moves at a good pace, and it’s not burdened by too much description (which is an admitted problem of mine; I want to know the stitch pattern on the hem of a skirt, y’know?). I am also proud of the choice my heroine makes in the end. While the book has a sub-plot that verges on romance, I just couldn’t let it go too far. I let her do the talking.

Things I Loathed: Tropes, tropes, tropes. I’m writing fantasy. I am painfully aware. And there are some things I did because, well, it’s the genre. There’s one thing in particular that I’m still not entirely on board with but, well, it fits with the overall mythology of this world, and so… there it is. I can’t very well destroy all of the tropes (see the comment about the romance up there). Also, I feel that some of the political intrigue slacks a bit toward the end. But that’s probably because I had a hard time writing it. Also: the climax needs work, but I still need to think on it. We’ll see what the readers think.

Thinking About: The market. Worried that this isn’t terribly marketable. Telling myself it doesn’t matter, because if it’s written well someone will love it. Really, it’s a bit of epic fantasy mixed up with a dose of Lovecraft, a pinch of Dante, and a smattering of Mieville, set in an alternate world in a high Victorianesque setting. There are plenty of corsets, flying machines, and even some relations (if you know what I mean). All with a multi-POV narrative, and well, that squid I was talking about. (Doesn’t that sound like the perfect pitch paragraph…)

At any rate. What’s done is done. Now, it’s in the hands of those readers who will likely show me things I never noticed, and I can start the editing process all over again! :)

Enter title here…

I’ve been going back and forth with the title thing on this book for the last week, really and truly frustrated that I couldn’t get something that felt right. So today during dinner (no, we were not eating calamari – it was gazpacho and sausages!) the name struck.

Indigo and Ink.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. Finally something that speaks to two of the main themes of the book and, in my mind, has a rather neat ring to it. And, at least with a cursory search on Google, no other books of the same name. Dark and squiddy. I like it that way.

I feel better now.

Titles, Tentacles, and Trust

Image: CC by Stephane Giner via Flickr

Explosition: in a narrative, the presence of excessive exposition. i.e. expository barf

Well, 80K has been surpassed. This is good. This is very good. And as I plunge into the last few chapters, I’m realizing I do have more to say in this space. So I’m thinking the draft will be around 95K now… give or take.

I have a tentative new title: Mother’s Ink. Or Inkwell. It’s become the center of the story, really (ink that is), and has even lent itself to my own version of the undead. (This is momentous! I’ve never had the undead in a novel before. I feel like I might have leveled as a writer. They even scare me.)

The hard part is keeping a firm grasp on all the strands in the story. The final climactic scene has taken a great deal of think time to sort out. I need certain people in certain places as well as certain artifacts in certain places, and trying to orchestrate that has proven rather difficult. But last night’s late thought session (I tend to think out most of my novels in bed before falling asleep or driving in the car listening to Classical music) I figured out 95% of it. That other 5% is still up in the air, um, literally. But I think I can get there.

Two Things I Loved: Okay, so there’s 10K of stuff since the last post. That’s a lot of stuff. So I get to cherry pick. I loved the interplay between Dinah and Ash (though it needs some work) and I loved bringing Dev back into the “real” world. The latter was painful and awkward and so wonderfully anti-romantic and unsatisfying. Which is just how I wanted it to be.

Two Things I Loathed: The exposition. It’s everywhere. Both of the narratives I’ve been writing in have come to the point where they are with People of an Informative Nature (TM). They are realizing things, learning things. And while that information is essential to the over all plot, it does slow things down. For me.  And there’s more than one instance of expository barf, so that counts for more than two things.

Best Quote of the Day:

“What color are the stones, Ash?” Corin asked. “The ones along the top.”

Ash squinted. “Is this a trick question? ‘Cause I don’t have time for—”

“Just answer me. What color are they?” Corin pressed.

“Ain’t no color. It’s empty.”

“Empty?” Dinah laughed.

“What do you see, Dinah?” asked Corin.

“The rubies are brilliant,” she said. “The most brilliant I’ve ever seen. True red, as deep as blood.”

Corin nodded. “Precisely. She sees it. We cannot. Do you know why, Dinah?”

“Because you’re men and simply can’t appreciate the nuances of refined aesthetics?” she tried, but knew it was a lame attempt at humor in a mirthless environment.

Worst Quote of the Day: (especially Dev’s “don’t take her, just take me” bit; ugh)

“Miracle. It sounds like a nightmare. I’ve seen what those things are capable of,” Marna hissed. She was angry—spitting mad, as her father might have said. Dev missed that about her, that temper. It had been years since he’d seen it.

“You and your Brennada friends, my dear, have meddled in business quite beyond your ken,” the Sib warned. “Do not presume to tell me.”

“Let her go,” Dev said, standing, taking a step toward the Sib. He didn’t know what he would do to stop hean, but just listening to heas voice was making him ill. “Do what you want with me—I don’t care. Just don’t bring her into this.”

The Sib laughed. “Ah, so noble! But I’m afraid I can’t do that, Devinder. She has proven surprisingly valuable for all of her mundanity. We thought she would lure you from your journey, though were were mistaken, in a way. Still, she certainly prevented your death, which was to our benefit. But it seems there are other men prepared to be snared on her behalf. You do have a way, Ms. Bashkin.”

Thoughts of the Day: Really, it’s just been novel fever around here. Not thinking terribly clearly on any front, and probably won’t until the draft is finished. I’ve been pondering that last scene a great deal, and that’s about it.

Around the Bend: Big boss fight! Cue music! Cue dancing! Cue freaky squidlings and undead sorcerers! This stuff is gettin’ real, I tell ya.

(Image CC by Stephane Giner via Flickr)