Sorry, I completely skipped May. I thought I'd done a blog post more recently, and apparently I was wrong. I hadn't had much to say because I wasn't making any progress on the novel.
So listen, blog reader. I'm gonna tell you a story.
I know what kind of relationship my characters need to have by the end, and getting them there doesn't seem so impossible. Especially since some of them are off to a rocky start.
I've also realized the importance of company barbecues in building a "normal" world before everything goes off the rails. It's going to help me develop some characters better, so I don't have to cut them from the story entirely.
These ideas have come to me at work, which is nothing new. My job is very monotonous and not very brain-heavy. But the past month of monotony has not been generating many ideas. And then I read a book. A book that had nothing to do with vampires, serial killers, or ice cream. It was a YA romance (in space!). But somehow that got the gears turning again. They were a little rusty, but they're moving again.
Hopefully that means it won't be two months before I post again. Hopefully.
Until now.
So, I've figured out the climax of the story. I had this vague idea about it, but I didn't know where it was, or how the characters got there, or how they got out once it was over. But I've got it now. And to be honest, it was kind of obvious. Maybe it's cliched, but we're going with it anyway. It's much better than nothing.
See, I've been trying to outline this book from the beginning. I have most of Act 1 (the first quarter) plotted out, and the beginning of Act 2. Then it's just the major plot points with a lot of empty space around them.
So I thought I'd start at the end and work my way backwards. Because if I could figure out where everyone needs to end up (both physically and, like, emotionally), I could fill in the things necessary for them to get there.
So I thought I'd start at the end and work my way backwards. Because if I could figure out where everyone needs to end up (both physically and, like, emotionally), I could fill in the things necessary for them to get there.
As a side note, I've realized that I start paragraphs with "so" a lot. There was a time where I would try to change that, for the sake of, I don't know, lexical variety (I'm probably using at least one of those words wrong). But now I'm just embracing it, as a feature of my conversational tone. There's a translation of Beowulf that just starts with "So." As in, "So listen, I'm gonna tell you a story."
So listen, blog reader. I'm gonna tell you a story.
I know what kind of relationship my characters need to have by the end, and getting them there doesn't seem so impossible. Especially since some of them are off to a rocky start.
I've also realized the importance of company barbecues in building a "normal" world before everything goes off the rails. It's going to help me develop some characters better, so I don't have to cut them from the story entirely.
These ideas have come to me at work, which is nothing new. My job is very monotonous and not very brain-heavy. But the past month of monotony has not been generating many ideas. And then I read a book. A book that had nothing to do with vampires, serial killers, or ice cream. It was a YA romance (in space!). But somehow that got the gears turning again. They were a little rusty, but they're moving again.
Hopefully that means it won't be two months before I post again. Hopefully.
I'll… well, I'll see you.
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