Rollercoaster
Things have been a bit manic for me lately, with the moving house and getting settled and attempting to not forget anything. It’s all gone well, though, and I’m loving the new place.
I’m starting to get settled into the new routine, too. Shorter commute, slightly different working hours, keeping the house straight, fussing the kitten. So much to keep up with, but I’m getting there. Fitting my writing in isn’t easy – I’m lucky if I can get half a post done on the train each way, and I’m often finishing up when I get home and before I post. This doesn’t lend itself to having nicely-edited/proofed posts. I’m making it work at the moment, though.
I have just got to a pivotal part of the story of the blogfic, and that’s helping me stay focussed. The current chapter is called Truth, and (finally! I hear you all say) answers some questions that have been lingering for a while.
It’s both easier and harder than I had anticipated. On the one hand, I know what’s going to happen (far more than in most other chapters), because it was all planned months ago. I have a handful of little notecards, all exploding at once. On the other hand, I keep wanting to second-guess my plans and ideas, can’t decide if they’re good enough or going to work, and get really nervous about what everyone’s going to think of them. And then I think ‘screw it’ and write the damn things anyway.
The other hard part is that I have a lot of material to cover/convey in this chapter, and I don’t want to skim any of it. It’s all important in its own way and I want to make sure that I give it all the screen-time (if you know what I mean) that it deserves. I don’t want to get to the end of the section and realise that something important (for plot or character) was done in a throwaway line and eclipsed by everything else.
So, it’s a bit of a balancing act. I just made it difficult by throwing a huge distraction in Faith’s way (which will be explained in today’s post!), so I’m not sure how the rest is going to roll out. It’s all more complicated than it looks at the moment. I prefer to let the action and reaction write itself out naturally, so I’m not planning it, just letting to move on towards where I want it to go in its own way.
So many changes in this chapter. No spoilers here, but I will promise that several recent events will make more sense by the time I’m done. The Seekers are undergoing some redefinition, though I’m not sure exactly how radical that will be yet.
Okay, little spoiler: one of the long-standing cast members will be gone by the end of this chapter. That’s all I’m giving you on that!
This is probably the hardest section I’ve had to write on the blog, thinking back. I have a lot of threads to pull together and I’m paranoid about missing something. I have no idea if I can pull all of this off, but it’s fun trying! Fun for me, anyway; my characters are having a harder time.
But that’s all good, right? 🙂
Svenja says:
Oh, wow, today’s section had me staring at the screen in shock. That’s a heck of a revelation! I like all the stuff that’s coming out in this chapter. I don’t know what you’re worried about, everything makes sense so far and the revelations are nicely paced, too.
I keep wanting to reply to posts and telling Faith my opinion, giving her some advice. Then I remember she’s not real. But it’s probably a good sign that that’s my first impulse, right? 😀
But, yeah. For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing a great job with it all. I’m going away over the weekend and I can’t wait to catch up when I get back and see what happens next!
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Mel says:
Oh, thank goodness. As long as it’s all making sense! Thanks so much for the feedback. 😀
Poor Faith. She could use some good advice about now!
Today’s post was really hard. I had to struggle to stop it sounding like a farce! I think it came out okay, though.
Have a great weekend, hope you like the catchup! 🙂
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 pm