I think, therefore I thought.

“I think…” Crispin stopped to think about what he thought.

I've been working on The Piper's Debt, and this is the last line I've written so far today. I just had to stop for a moment because I was about to break out in giggles. What kind of stupid line is that? I typed it out thinking that I was pretty dern clever then stopped because something didn't feel right. I reread the sentence and then tried to think of another way to word it. I didn't feel like rewording it. I actually like it.

For now it's going to stay in. I should probably get rid of it later, just as I kept saying I should get rid of the exploding goat scene in Death to Life. Will I get rid of it? Well, the exploding goat scene is still there and I like it. I like this sentence too, even though it is stupid. It portrays Crispin's character very well. It keeps the tone of the book light, and sticks in a bit of humor. But would readers see this in the midst of the book and roll their eyes? Throw the book away in irritation? Laugh? Laughing is okay, as long as they aren't laughing at me, but rather with me.

I like lines like this. In the first chapter of The Shadow Waltz there's a line about the wizard wanting to get money and move out of his drafty tower. When I had this chapter reviewed only two people caught the humor in this. About the same number thought I must have not meant to be funny and should edit it out. Everyone else didn't notice at all.

And so, for now the line stays. Maybe I'll get a bit of sense in the rewrites and kick it out. Probably not. Exploding goats, people thinking about thinking, it's all good stuff.

Chris and Kyros

So far it's been one of those weeks. You know, the sort where nothing horrible happens but everything seems a little bit off. My mind magnifies all of these little things into big traumatic things. I'm not going to go into any details on this because the details really do seem trivial, but suffice it to say that I'm feeling a bit frazzled.

My writing is slogging along okay. I have the next few scenes in mind as well as a vague ending. I even think that the pieces are beginning to fall into place to make the ending possible. I'm still predicting that I'll finish the first draft at some point in August, giving me plenty of time before NaNo season.

And, as promised, I posted another chapter from my work in progress. It is the tenth chapter, and before I give you the link, I want to warn you of a few things. First, it is the tenth chapter. That means stuff has happened between this and the first chapter. It is about ten years after the beginning. I selected this chapter because it contains the beginnings of the conflict I mentioned was missing. The antagonist is obviously Kyros, and the potential love interest is Chris/ Christina. (Chris is her nickname.) I thought that by showing this chapter y'all might better see what I was talking about before. Chris isn't super important, but later she's been being a bit passive which isn't right. She's supposed to be more fiery.

Anyway, you should go ahead and read Chapter Ten - Chris and Kyros. That's just a working title, but it is kind of amusing since that's the relationship I'm trying to show you by posting this particular chapter. Go forth and read it, and let me know what you think. (General plot and character stuff, no grammar garbage. This is still the first draft.) Enjoy!

Conflicts

I have run into a bit of a problem. I have now hit 75,000 words in The Piper's Debt. For those of you who don't follow word counts, this means I'm now about three fourths of the way done. The problem is, I've realized there are some conflicts in the story that will need to be brought further out. To put this extra conflict in (a relationship between the main antagonist and a side character) I will need to do some major rewriting. Knowing how I work, it's best I ignore this and write through to the end then add this conflict in the first revision.

That, to me, is one of the hardest things about writing a novel. You get a huge chunk done, start feeling good, and then realize that it's all crap. And yet if you go back and rewrite every time you realize that then you'll never reach the end. And if you do reach the end there are bound to be huge chunks that don't make sense anymore anyway. AND even after you rewrite the whole thing you STILL find things that just aren't right.

Oh well. The rest of the novel is coming along all right. I've finally convinced myself that some things that probably don't make sense make perfect sense. They probably do because I usually over think such things. The biggest problems I have are making sure there's enough variety of conflict and that I don't use the same descriptions over and over. At least I've avoided describing the night sky. I'm addicted to describing it as "deep blackness with pinpricks of sparkling diamonds," or some variation. Eesh, I plagiarize myself sometimes.

That's enough whining for one post. Next time I'll probably slap up another sample from The Piper's Debt. One of the good parts, not the sucky ones, I swear.