marycatelli: (Default)
2025-05-07 10:40 pm

that is the question

There I go, skipping along on the first draft of a -- work, in which questions will be important. Asking the right question is important for fixing all the heroine's problems.

Then I end the first chapter with a question.

Off goes the muse, pondering ending every chapter with a question. Like I might not revise every one of them out.

sigh Inspiration.
marycatelli: (Default)
2024-12-23 11:58 pm
Entry tags:

ah Kilmeny

There I was, circling around on some stories.

And Kilmeny wandered back in, reminding me that I had worked on her story before. . . .

As soon as I dragged it back out, I remembered why I was stymied on it. But I did get further
marycatelli: (Default)
2024-11-26 11:18 pm
Entry tags:

timing is everything

I am throwing in a scene.

The sole reason to throw in this scene is to separate two other scenes that are illogical back to back. Hmm. Maybe just inharmonious? Infelicitous? Anyway, it's to provide some subtext by dividing the scenes up the way they are divided in the story time. So I have to throw in something.

The heroine started to talk about court. We'll see.
marycatelli: (Default)
2024-01-14 11:59 pm
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every plot bunny thinks it's so funny

Been having slow going with writing for some time.

A whole fluffle of plot bunnies have all woken up and started to make eager suggestions about taking up their stories again.  At the same time, of course.
marycatelli: (Default)
2023-10-26 11:31 pm

you begin with what you begin with

Was reading an article talking about how to build your magical system.  It said you could start once you had the main structural points of your plot.

My eyes rolled so hard I had to retrieve them from under the desk. 

Yes, in, say, "The Witch Child and the Scarlet Fleet" I designed the magic system to fit the story.  But in "Winter's Curse" I worked backwards from the idea of the curse to design a story to reveal it. 
marycatelli: (Reading Desk)
2023-08-29 11:03 pm
Entry tags:

inspired

I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.

William Faulkner
marycatelli: (Default)
2023-04-11 11:45 pm
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the possibilities of powers

There's a hero. There's a heroine.

Both are superpowered because that was the opening that other characters used to exploit, or attempt to. But that doesn't say exactly what the powers are.

It has to suit their personalities, I remind myself. And the muse acts silly and ignores the question.

sigh
marycatelli: (Default)
2023-03-23 11:15 pm

abduction and inspiration

Abduction is useful when starting out with a story.

By which I do not mean stealing a story idea from something (even something copyrighted) and then running off with it slung over your shoulders, though abduction is good for that, but logical abduction, where you start with things and try to fit them together.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Default)
2022-09-13 11:50 pm

snippet ideas

Sometimes you get an idea not from a complete work, but from a snippet or something.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Default)
2022-07-04 10:25 pm

on the downside of filing off serial numbers

The trick about taking an idea and filing off the serial numbers so that no one but you can recognize the origin -- and sometimes not even you -- is that --

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Default)
2022-04-25 10:21 pm
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philosophical speculation about Robin Hood

since aesthetics is a branch of philosophy. . . .

The oldest references to Robin Hood are records of people with the odd last name of Robinhood. Hood was a common name, Robinson was a common name, but using a first and last name stuck together was odd. They weren't all criminals, some were just listed on tax rolls and the like, but a good number were, and one was referred to as Robehod because he had been outlawed.

A collection of Robin Hood stories could brush on the "true story" of various Robin Hood ballads by having them happen to different characters. Which would make sense of the vast mishmash.

And also require more historical knowledge than I've got, so it remains speculation to me.
marycatelli: (East of the Sun)
2021-09-06 10:58 pm

to end and begin

So I write.  I write  200 antiwords, 700 words on the new pass.  AND at 24,700 words, this draft is done!  Woot!

And so I think, what should I write while that sits on the backburner for the pass for grammar and things?

So the muse says, remember that idea you left out?  It's true, and it's going to be in her great-grandson's day.  Outline another story!

It does seem to come together nicely.  And it does distract.