(no subject)

Have managed to complete 15 scenes of outline despite uselessness of right hand.

I always panic when my first drafts are terrible, and I think I'm going to try something different the next time around. But for me, the first draft is digging up all the dinosaur bones, and the second is putting them together; the first draft is sitting out on the lake with a fishing pole, reeling things in, and the second draft is making the trout almandine.

When I outline before the first draft, I get dark spots where A MIRACLE HAPPENS, I get easy and obvious answers. Anjo's complicated attitude towards his brother didn't show up when I was trying to outline; the three political factions hadn't shown up yet either.

But then I finish a first draft and it looks hopeless, a tangle of shiny threads twisted and knotted together -- and this is where I actually need an outline, untangling the knots, puzzling out connections, trying to make sure the questions I've asked and the questions I've answered are the same. Yes -- it gives me hope.

(no subject)

So this morning I was thinking about one of my subplots. It's a lost-love subplot featuring a less major character.

Up till now, the book has been in 1st person. The problem with doing a romance subplot in first person that doesn't evolve the narrator is that she has to spend a lot of time eavesdropping or conveniently overhearing. And she has to care enough to do so. And it might just be saturated with some "Here, let me tell you my entire backstory."

That is not going to work.

In theory I don't really like first-person stories with more than one narrator. Confusing. I'm also not a fan of having one first-person narrator and other sections in third-person. Obviously you can pull off either one if the story requires it, but like second-person, it's a choice you have to justify pretty hard.

So I guess I'm rewriting the whole thing in third person. Bother.

A special circle of hell

Not only am I coming down off the Percocet; I also have an earworm of "Never Gonna Give You Up."