Day 199

Spoiler Alert! May contain planning-stage plot/character details or other spoilers!

15 May 2017

So Mothers Day went well enough; food I made turned out more or less ok, no big parties so cooking and cleanup wasn’t a nightmare, and we made it out to a movie - The Circle, with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson and some other folks whose names I should probably know. The downside being that now I’m feeling like the SF-dystopia angle of Blind the Eyes is strong and cohesive enough and should really be dealt with. Which would be fine if this was like a year ago. Or a few months ago. Or even last week. But today is my must-start date for the actual rewrites, as opposed to plot angsting. So, yikes. Also, consistent feedback seems to be nearly everyone is just confused by the story, which is frustrating on multiple levels. It ruins flow to spell everything out, plus info dumps and too much backstory and worldbuilding weigh things down and are generally unartistic. But no one being able to figure out what’s going on is not exactly what you want to be known for starting out in your career, so… I’ll try to be brutal in rewrites and pin things down more explicitly and less artistically… maybe… Or maybe I’ll hope line-edits are magical solutions to everything!

In other news, we completely failed to drink gin and tonics yesterday, which is something of a let down. But the movie was good, so that was nice. Also, no sales of the first audiobook out so far, so that’s a little frightening. I’m gonna blame it on the awkward cover art and almost complete lack of marketing plan and hope it’s not my performance that sunk it, lol. I’ve also sent in a request for the giveaway copies, so maybe I can stir up some interest that way. Maybe. Also have one article left hanging over my head, as if I needed more pressure this month, and apparently that client hasn’t returned any feedback either, so that’s a little disturbing. Gonna try to forget all that and start producing, though, as I’m down to 3 weeks, which is terrifying…

For interests’ sake, these are my post-The Circle comments on necessary edits to myself: Because the Tower is about disconnection and obedience and Cole’s never disconnected, she’s able to break free. The resolution has to tie back to connection and obedience; Freedom is about shallow, disordered connection and no rules. You can survive without connection, but you can’t overcome. Cadence has to help with the Climax somehow. And Ange and Itri? Ravel? Cole thinks she can support connection for others without being a part of it? Denial gives death an opening? Then seeks out/admits connection on her terms?? Needs some sort of critique, opposition or response to the Tower by the end. What’s the story arc resolution? What questions are answered?

Part 2

OK, I think maybe possibly I’ve got the map sorted and the continuity of plot in place from a character/world/quest perspective. Man do I love to complicate things for myself. Anyways. Despite instructions, gonna try to edit straight through from beginning to end with rewrites to ensure continuity, coherency and simply have some goal benchmarking so I can make sure I’m on track with the deadline. High goal is 10 chapters per day (out of ~60 = done in 1.5-2 weeks), low goal is 5/day (barely makes it by deadline assuming under 5 days/week solid work + setbacks when I inevitably realize I’ve got something else that needs changing and/or throw the whole plot and character arc out again. Onwards.

Part 3

Research into nightmare, dream-eating and water monsters. The Japanese Baku turns out to be a shockingly good fit, and along with some variation of kelpie a dream-eating sea monster is a surprisingly logical choice. Wanted to use some Roma or local First Nations legends and language, but I’m coming up blank on the research and don’t have a lot of time for it, so maybe I’ll weave that in later. For now, I’ve re-edited the first 5 chapters to swap in references to the Mara, which translates to useful things in a number of Indo-European languages. Unfortunately means penis in Japanese, so hopefully most readers don’t catch on. The Hebraic ‘bitter’ and Gaelic ‘sea’ as well as the use of Mare or Mara and variations thereof as words literally for nightmares works out quite neatly.

Monday

Start Time: 10 am, 1 & 6:30 pm

Location: Abbotsford; home; couch

Drinking: Peppermint tea

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