marycatelli: (Galahad)
2023-06-19 11:23 pm

truth will out

In fact, it will. 

The hero realizes that those who took over his childhood village were in cahoots with the necromancer, but has no evidence.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Default)
2023-06-04 12:07 am

knowledge is power

There's one advantage of the erratic, one-of-a-kind nature of superpowers.

There's fewer questions about the advance of knowledge.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Cat)
2023-03-09 09:38 pm

wizards and intelligence

Characters are about to get a briefing.

Going to have to figure out what to tell. In particular, they are correctly going to be told which necromancers are the masterminds and most dangerous, which is going to lead to some negligence about those who are not but still aren't safe.

But briefings aren't scintillating.
marycatelli: (Cat)
2023-02-09 11:37 pm

sorcery and the show-off

A necromancer wants to show off to a boy.   Not just to knock his socks off -- which would be hard to do after the necromancy he's seen in the last months -- but to impress him with their magic.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (East of the Sun)
2023-01-03 11:10 pm

knowledge and not

The heroine knows something. Her father and her uncle, both, were too foolish in their cups for the story to not leak out.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
2022-12-17 11:25 pm

denouement discovery

Wrapping up the tale in the denouement. The easiest thing to revise usually. . . .

The marrying and the burying, as Twain put it, although in this tale, it's the marrying after the disenchanting -- some characters finally have the spells on them broken.

And I'm revising along and realized that I had characters discussing something that was hidden by an enchantment without actually learning it. . . another character could now tell them because the spell had been broken, but it won't spontaneously be known by any other character.

sigh. The things you miss in the first draft.
marycatelli: (God Speed)
2022-11-26 11:47 pm

stops on the way

The heroine is off traveling. I have her impulsively stop somewhere she did not reasonably think would help her on her quest. (Frustration might play some part, since she doesn't have much hope of any place helping her.)

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Galahad)
2022-11-14 11:26 pm

learning stuff

Revelation!  Discovery!   Knowledge!

With enough foreshadowing?

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Gibson Girl)
2022-11-11 11:23 pm

super vs powers

What makes a superpower super?

If the powers only recently appeared, it would be anything a human can do -- fly, shoot energy beams, survive grenades without a cut -- that couldn't be done before the appearance. (Plus that minimizes the alternate history need.)

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Architect's Dream)
2022-11-08 10:54 pm

on her way

On her way, the heroine finds the city having a festival.

Except, whoops, I hadn't detailed what she had been looking for in the city.

She's not going to amble aimlessly, especially since she arrives during the preparations and half-hopes she can get something done before it.

Seek out the university, perhaps. And its library. That was why she stopped, after all.
marycatelli: (Default)
2022-10-26 11:28 pm

notes, notes everywhere, and not a plot to work

Keeping a collection of random notes on a story is wise. Something that may work out brilliantly may yet have no place in an outline because it's not situated in time, and you don't want to lose it.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Default)
2022-10-20 11:59 pm

action at a distance

So, I handle the "flying, not flying" problem by separating the flyer from the character who will need him.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Architect's Dream)
2022-10-17 11:50 pm

sequels and time

Working on two outlines, one "sequel" to the other.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Galahad)
2022-10-15 10:12 pm

oops -- about that

So the story has to stall.

Which means that one set of characters have to have a motive to not press an issue. A relatively heroic reason, given their characters.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (God Speed)
2022-09-04 07:56 pm

knighting the knight

Once it has become possible for someone to spontaneously just become a magical knight, without spell slinging, or a ceremony, or perhaps most vital of all, an oath of allegiance. . . 

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Default)
2022-08-04 11:50 pm

there's a good villainess

Too many villains spoil the climax. . . .

Fortunately, the villainess I was thinking of as the chief one reveals that she will be taking a number of the others out of the way.  And that will make her more dangerous for the climax.  How handy!

Meanwhile, some of the others have to vanish by more ordinary means.

Now, I just have to decide whether she does it on stage, or reveals it at the end.  The first builds dramatic irony but the second gives a bigger twist, assuming that I can foreshadow it enough.