random post of many things

[minervasolo]

Our seminar tutor talked at us for a large portion of the seminar today. About ifteen minutes on why he doesn't like Forster, and a good ten minutes on why Mansfield Park is the best Jane Austen adaption (not that it had anything to do with the seminar!). He's nice, and he's interesting, but it's irritating when you've got a point to make and he changes the subject before everyone's had their say.

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It's sunny now. I have discovered that I really like this top (black sleeveless slashneck), again, and may go hunting for more today. I will probably end up in Expressions, since along with retro clothes they have retro prices, and it's nice to find tops that cost what you'd expect them to, instead of another tenner on top.

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I kinda want to draw. I want to draw want I want to draw at this time every year: an illustration to Beth Orton's 'Central Reservation'. I have so many sketches of a girl in a red dress knocking about now. Unfortunately, I really need to get on with reading Richard III, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Ben Hur, mostly because I really want to read Maurice but can't let myself yet. I might go sit behind the minster, or in the museum gardens, or I might get too hot and sit in my nice cool room (damp has its advantages, you know!).

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I've been thinking about Greenhelm (while the tutor was talking about Mansfield Park) and I think the pacing is probably too slow. So little happens in the first book, it's very much 'here are the characters'. I want to change the journey to Larada anyway, to get more background info in, so I may just end up cutting a huge chunk of the Larada stuff. Maybe even the near-drowning, which was only in the original to pad it out anyway. It's had chunks cut from it already. Though it does leave me wondering how to put Ethan in prison... Not that that was ever truly necessary, but I liked the dynamic he had with his father beforehand. Need to bring sSathos in earlier as a more threatening character, maybe drop a few more hints as to his motivation.

Of course, I have to finish Greenhelm first. Well, the first book at any rate. I'd like to be able to start reading the second next term at writers. It'll be something I've not written before, which should be interesting. New characters! New revelations! Some sort of speedingh up of time because once again, nothing is happening! ^_^

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I need a new creative icon. Maybe after my birthday, I'll treat myself to a paid account. Who knows.

Comments

[rhube.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I've enjoyed hearing Greenhelm - I love the way we get to share in each others private worlds at Writing Group, and yours is clearly rich, and something you've been living with for a long time. I'd be excited to see the changes, though. I think you may be right about the pacing, and I'd be interested to see what you put in place of the near-drowning. It did seem a bit... inserted, when you first read it out, but at the same time it also felt like the moment when things started happening as opposed to just showing us the characters and their relationships.

I like Sathos, and it would be good to see more of him earlier, especially if it brought us to understand his point of view better. On the other hand, I want to know how it ends and where it's going to go, and I certainly understand the impulse to just get it down, to have a finished product before you start reassessing the work as a whole (not that I've ever managed that - I am still she of the many rewritten false-starts).

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

Te pacing thing struck me reading reviews of other books. The only action in this books is sSathos, really, and even that's not hugely important over all. It was there to get Galahad and Elspeth together, originally, and while it now introduces few other characters it's still not very important overall. The drowning is even worse in that respect. My original plan had where I am now at about halfway through a book, and I might look into getting closer to that now, or maybe just making this a shorter novel. I'm at 93,000 words so far. I've got no problem shifting this into teenaged fantasy instead of adult: it's a wider, more forgiving market (at least, that's my impression of it as a reader) and it wouldn't require much cutting on my part. Certainly none of the themes are things I haven't found in Teenaged Fantasy before, and my cast is pretty young (and not only could be younger as they were originally, but could probably do with a greater age range).

I keep thinking this is a second draft, but it's actually a third. If I get too caught up in rewriting now, I'll just do that instead of finishing it. I've got so many 'false starts' littering my files, usually because I've liked a concept or a line and put no thought towards actual plot. There's one that's been a dark ages fantay, a dystopian future and a current vampire novel. Poor abused and neglected Blooborn.

[rhube.livejournal.com]

I think it could definitely work as a teen novel. Would you be thinking of making the whole series teen, then, or just the first - envisaging a progression in the reading age?

[odangochan.livejournal.com]

I hate Forster too, but it sounds like the guy's not doing his job properly. It might be something to mention to your supervisor at the end of term.

[ultharkitty.livejournal.com]

Woo, Sathos!

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

Bearing in mind what passes for teen-reading now, there's no reason I couldn't make it all teen. For me, it mostly just depends on the length. Though I have just written the sex scene...