End-of-the year update: Over Yonder & Wall of Silence

It was high time I posted here again, now that my exams are over for the semester, so here it goes.

In the upcoming weeks, I’m going to work alternatively on Over Yonder and The Wall of Silence, since I’d really like to further the advancement of both stories. I’ve just proceeded to get rid of half a chapter of the latter, deciding that what I had written in it so far not only bore me, but also kind of left me puzzled regarding how to put an end to the scene. I really don’t like information-dumping chapters, and I’m afraid this one was definitely veering in that awful direction. So there it goes for the lengthy talk supposed to happen during two days, the reader really don’t need to be reminded every three lines how the difference in their languages is a problem and yadda-yadda. In the next chapter, the party will enter Calan, and I’ll be rid of the travelling part (did I ever mention not being too keen on characters travelling for several chapters?).

Why do I want them to be in Calan so much? Because in Calan, there be dragons… er, some more plot. In Calan, Kheril will haveto fulfill his diplomatic mission. In Calan, Kittin and Ren will experience their first real contact with Llenan people from all social classes, and be confronted to a hostility much more different, but no less dangerous, than the one displayed by the villagers of the previous chapters. In Calan dwell Ari the half-blood thief and her friend Domio the swordsman, and a trio of Kellenim who have a hand in many political matters. In Calan, inquisitors and guards devoted to the Church abound, and it’s not easy to escape them once one has been spotted for the ‘wrong’ reasons.

Come to think of it, I realize that I, and only I, am the one who put that whole ‘travel’ part in it, and sometimes, I wonder if this was a mistake. I very much doubt though that I could have pulled that whole crash thing with the ornithopter ending up closer to the city; I need my characters to be able to wander somewhat freely at first, because soon enough anyway, they will realize how easy it is to become an outlaw in a place as extreme as Calan, Tir Maragh or Runne. Besides, if I have them thrown in jail from the start, they’ll have to do everything by themselves to get out, without any external help (since they don’t know anyone there), and… well, no. Calan is a city in a medieval-like setting, but it’s also a city in which everyone too different gets labelled as “demon” or “sorcerer”, and consciously beaten to a pulp until they can’t move nor be a threat anymore. After all, why worry about prisoners escaping when one knows they’ve already had their ankles and fingers broken.

Therefore, I’m keeping my first version for the moment, and I’m going to spend the next days after Christmas putting the story back on trail in order for the core of the plot to finally be unveiled. There. I’m seriously tired of Act 2, I want to start working on Act 3, for Eien’s sake!

Tags: novel | over yonder | wall of silence | writing

Notice

Yes, yes, I know I haven’t posted in a while. I’m past the 62k words on The Wall of Silence, but I must admit I haven’t written a lot in the past weeks. College has started again, and while stealing 5 or 10 minutes here and there to write a short blog entry or read e-mails and stuff is doable, I’m still having a hard time to properly sit down for long enough for it to be worth writing. I have homework to do instead, isn’t that wonderful. But not tonight. Tonight, my brain just refuses to properly function and do scholar work. *grr*

I guess doing NaNo this year is crazy. Oh well. For anyone who could find the info useful, I may very well be posting more than just a few excerpts on a Livejournal blog–it’s easier in my opinion to just friend-lock entries, rather than putting them up here with a password that I need to e-mail to people (or having readers e-mail to me regularly to have it). So, if you, reader who’s passing here, happen to have a LJ account, feel free to swing by http://yzabel-writings.livejournal.com ; likely, I’ll do a lot of copy/pasting between this blog and that blog, so no need to read both, but the longer, more complete excerpts (or the whole novel… who knows) will be available on the LJ only. A matter of security, sort of. I don’t want my words to be free for grabs for anyone on the web.

By the way, updates to come later on during the month. I haven’t done as much preparation for my NaNovel as I did for Unsung Heroes, but… this may still come!

Livejournal | nanowrimo| writing

Past the 50k mark

Current WoS wordcount: 56471.

My writing is so hectic these days - I’ll produce 3,000 words on a Saturday, then nothing for the following 5 or 6 days. Ah well. As long as I can write and take my story where it needs to be taken, I’m happy.

I reworked part of the plan for what will happen next. In half a chapter, my group of characters will be in Calan, capital of one of the most Kazaran-unfriendly realms on the continent, and I’ll be able to have fun with the local representants of the Church. Why, telepaths in a city where they’re outlawed, two strangers coming from a continent rumored to be the Demons’ turf, a High Inquisitor wanting to make sure the summer Concilium goes as well as possible, a half-Kellenin* thief (I don’t want to call them Dark Elves anymore), followed by three pure-blood Kellenim* looming over the Archbishop to fulfill a goal known by themselves only? That can only be fun.

Two secondary characters have made an appearance, too. Marcus of Trano, secretary to Archbishop Averen of Calan, and a man who holds… quite an amount of secrets when it comes to the Kazaris. I can’t wait to have him and Kheril have their little meeting. And Domio, roaming swordsman with a certain loyalty to the Guild of Thieves (or, rather, to its Master Agas Blackhand). Always useful to have a swordsman in town, really.

* If anyone were ever to wonder, Kellenin=singular, Kellenim=plural. No ’s’. That’s how korai language goes (for this form of words).

Niltoy | word+count | writing

Unstuck - Sort of

Current word count on The Wall of Silence: 43902.

I think I’ve finally managed to find a way out of my frustrating scene. After pondering the matter more at length, I realized one thing - both my groups have their little secrets to hide. Ren and Kittin still believe the Watchers are after them, while Kheril and his friends are on a diplomatic mission which, if the Church was to learn of it, would likely be interrupted through violent means. None of them wants to be questioned about their motives and destination, not by someone they’ve just met, and this wariness, I decided, could very well lead to a temporary statu-quo, a ploicy of “no questions, m’kay?”. It’s logical. It’s udnerstandable. After all, at this point, all Ido wants to do is make sure our two young techies don’t die from their wounds, and all the techies themselves want is to not be caught by the Watchers. I think they can reach such an agreement for, say, a couple days. After this, the pressing questions will really roll in, but not before something else happens.

This said, I’m now deep into a combat scene, and I’m seriously rusty when it comes to these. I absolutely need to put some pressure on my little characters (15 people against, uhm, 5 - among which one is heavily wounded, one is blind, and one is a healer with a strong respect for any kind of life. That leaves Iswann and Kittin as potential fighters. Niiice.). At the same time, even though he won’t use his power to kill/maim/wound/dominate mentally, Kheril is quite the strong man in his craft, and I also need to let it appear that if he stands there in the corner channelling energies, it’s not just to look cool.

Well, back to the fight, then. Let’s see what Iswann will do, now that his weapons are unsheathed.

NaNoWriYe | Niltoy | word count | writing

Frustrations

I’ve just understood why, without me noticing it at first, my writing has somewhat slowed down - and by this, I don’t mean the problems with my dead hard drive, but something more general, with different roots.

I’m currently stuck at a scene I absolutely hate, yet a scene that is essential to the story. The one where my two groups of characters meet, and realize they come from different places, places that shouldn’t be in contact with each other to start with, places about which each involved party has its own beliefs/ideas/legends. It IS an important scene, one that has to happen at some point, since this little bunch of characters wear signs of not originating from the same continent, and it would be totally out of character for them to not ask at least a few questions. On the other hand, my attempts at writing it have, so far, all been pretty dull.

I could distillate the information in-between action scenes, but I’m wary of burdening the reader under too much action, under combat chained to pursuit chained to combat, or anything close to that. I could write your average sit-around-the-campfire evening and have the characters honestly answer to each other’s questions, yet this is a) too much exposition all at once, b) revelations that are spoon-fed too early and too fast to the reader. I’m pondering trying a mix of both methods - a beginning of discussion, followed by an interruption, from which other relationships/a spark of trust could emerge.

In a way, I’m even glad that I’ve ran into this problem: I know that when I manage to overcome it (because I WILL overcome it, I’m not giving up!), I’ll get out of it with a new experience under my belt, and a very valuable one at that.

Right now, though, I’m just at a loss about how to make all of this interesting. * cringes *

Niltoy | scene | writing