marycatelli: (Default)
Oh you plot bunnies!

Two very different stories about a character who finds herself in another world.  The means by which they are moved differ, the situations they find themselves in differ, their powersets differ, and the reasons they have powers differ.  Their enemies differ, and so does the conflict.

This probably means they should have different reactions to arrival, perhaps all the more in that they do not glide over it as a machine that the readers will simply accept as not relevant to the plot.  (It is relevant in both cases, though -- the reasons differ.)

Both are going to have  metaphysical questions, though.  No matter how different I make them.

(And I don't even know if either one is a full story yet.)
marycatelli: (Default)
Was plugging along on a story.

Knew there was a character, a servant, who knew about a cursed prince. Needed him as a plot device to keep the prince alive, and also he gave me a way to keep the prince busy. Made him a big solid guy, a huntsman.

So writing along on the outline and realized that I had to name this servant. I dug up a name, decided it looked good, and if it's a diminutive, it's ironic he has it.

Put it down on the character list. Character started to wonder whether he could be a lean and wiry huntsman instead.

Ah, the game of names.
marycatelli: (East of the Sun)
Heroine started to wonder what would happen to her at night.

Problem is that things will happen to her at night. Panic may not be the wisest reaction on her part. So perhaps she should not work herself up into a frenzy.

Decisions, decisions
marycatelli: (Default)
Ah, ending the draft -- and realizing that you had completely forgot to remove some characters from the scene, or give them somewhere to be.

Ended up searching backwards to find the last time they had appeared, and then having them leaving. Good thing they were mysterious folks who could do that.
marycatelli: (Default)
A character is being a pill.

He might even hail the main character before the manor court through some chicanery. Oh, wonderful, the idea runs off because the main character could do things and learn things through the manor court.

Then a cold gimlet thought looks at the way the character is being a pill and is not happy with it.

Do I have to invent a different reason to get her there? Ah, plotting.
marycatelli: (Default)
Adults being killjoys can be quite useful for children's tales. It means you have to go around them. (Just like other authorities for adults.)

But -- one character is being a killjoy when it doesn't move the story forward. The problem is that it's annoying.

You're a supporting character, dear. You don't get to do that. . . .
marycatelli: (Default)
There I was, stymied in the tale.

Then I realized that the venture out into the woods should be bright and wonderful until the complications hit. The woman teaching them should not be strict.

Now all I have to do is recast several pages to fit that. . . .

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marycatelli

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