RDF/RSS Feed
Atom Feed
Sometimes I’m amazed at what the Plot Daemon has been up to behind my back. I was not feeling well for several days after the trip, and couldn’t get more than a hundred words or so out at a time. Far below my daily goals. (I was waking up unsure where I was–mostly thinking I was on the train, but once still in a hotel–and the writing itself was peculiar. I knew certain scenes would be difficult, but usually those difficult scenes come embedded in their full context. This time…not so much.) But underneath/behind all that, the Plot Daemon was busy.
So this morning the plot-string I’m on, that had been knotted up badly, allowed me to follow it through the tangle. There’s a mistake in another thread several chapters back that’s going to have to be fixed in revision…but then TWO threads will be out of the tangle.
And now I can see, looking back all the way to the original trilogy, where the first clues are. DANG. I have one smart Plot Daemon. (Yes. And you should quit trying to argue with me and just write! Because when you try to force things, you make mistakes.) Yes. I do.
Book III is coming into shape. Some things about it are very dark, and not all the POVs are in the right place yet. I still don’t know if one character will be alive or not at the end of the book. (Just write the damn book!) I don’t know if we’ll have good news or bad on three other fronts by then. And as I wrote this, a small plot-bomb just exploded in my brain…so I guess I better shut up and write. (I keep telling you!!!)
Comment by Matthew Walker — September 16, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Listen to the daemon! It is wise!
Comment by genko — September 16, 2010 @ 11:38 am
Sounds like a regular roller-coaster. Have a fun ride!
Comment by elizabeth — September 16, 2010 @ 12:01 pm
Plot-bomb gave me a headache. The contents were “There’s another traitor.” When I asked details, Plot Daemon did his usual “Shut up and write!”
Comment by APJ — September 16, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
I don’t want to be rude Mrs Moon, because i do enjoy your blogs but… It’s time to do as you’re told, stop delaying and WRITE!!! 😀 (your millions of fans are breathlessly waiting ;-))
Comment by APJ — September 16, 2010 @ 1:23 pm
Okay maybe we’re not millions, but we’re a feisty bunch… much like our favorite Author 😉
Comment by elizabeth — September 16, 2010 @ 3:15 pm
APJ: Bullying doesn’t work with me. So yeah, be feisty all you want, but don’t arouse my contrarian side. Neither of us would be happy about that.
The next book is marching through Production. I’m not “delaying” it. The book I’m on will move along at my best writing pace. (Like other people, if I feel bad, the production lags. Scolding doesn’t help.)
OK? OK.
(Author who has spent some time searching for information for friend whose house had water running through it in storm last week is particularly resistant to pushing…)
Comment by Mary Elmore — September 16, 2010 @ 5:03 pm
I commend you for searching for information for your friend. That is what everyone is about, that willingness to help. That is what a paladin does.
Thanks for your helping your friend. We, your readers, can wait.
Comment by june — September 16, 2010 @ 10:45 pm
Make bread, punch it, kneed it then after the exercise for the hands and the break for the mind, hummmmmm, Keep the demon happy.
Let your friend know I will be thinking of her. Clorox, wet and dry vacs, fabreez and lots of fans and work are what helped me. The Kilz sprayed all over everything the next month helped too. No odor or mold afterward either, of course I did have to go with painted woodwork.
Comment by APJ — September 17, 2010 @ 6:21 am
I apologize Mrs. Moon, I was not being serious (or bullying) on my “stop delaying and write” comment, I was playing with your Plot Daemon comment that you had written just before. I know it is very difficult to write; I’ve tried it and have started pretty good, only to watch it fizzle.
Real life often takes us away from the things that we are working on, yet those real relationships are the ones that carry us through the everyday, allow us to keep our sanity and are our support and strength for those times of weakness.
Keep up the good work.
Comment by elizabeth — September 17, 2010 @ 8:08 am
Afternoons with headache when I’m trying to overlap cramming in more words on the book with research on an unrelated problem leave less patience than usual…sorry.
X-, whose house it is, finds it hard to ask for help, but was convinced by Y- (choir president) to do so. So, over a week after the flood, we finally hear how bad it is. Which means that tomorrow a bunch of us will show up to help move furniture and remove baseboards and do whatever else we can to help. We have a roster for providing weekend meals and info on food sensitivities and likes/dislikes (oops–I need to get that to Y-); X- won’t be back with us until they’ve moved back into the house.
No subdivision built in the year that one was really considered the known potential for major downpours in its planning. The attitude was “It won’t happen again and anyway it happened [some number of] miles from here.” The street has puny little drainage slots at curbside, not storm drains. The “negligible” slope channels water toward their side of the street and there’s a lot of hardscape–the street, driveways, roofs–besides the fact that even the lawns can’t absorb that much that fast. Houses were built on slabs, just about flat ground level, certainly no more than four inches above. With 12-15 inches of water coming down, that’s a cubic foot of water, or more, per square foot of area, and that’s before it moves downslope from the slightly higher areas.
This area has historically received more than 20″ in 24 hours–not overall, but in the “bottom drops out” spots, wherever they are that time. Yet planning for residential housing and commercial use still isn’t based on that possibility. (“It’s too expensive. It doesn’t happen that often. It would make too much land unsuitable for building.”) Most years are dry, and make higher bridges and serious flood-management approaches look ridiculous. Developers clamor to build right up to the banks of the river and the impounded lakes, trusting the old (known to have some age-related problems) dams built many, many, many decades ago to control the water level.
Anyway…the story is still moving.
Comment by tuppency — September 17, 2010 @ 12:26 pm
Sounds like people should start digging moats!
Seriously house floods are horrible to deal with. And concrete just wicks up the water like blotting paper (remember that? I’m dating myself)
Is there a local meat processor who would be willing to donate freezer space for important paper stuff to get it started freeze drying without molding?
Comment by elizabeth — September 17, 2010 @ 1:00 pm
I never thought of a meat packer…maybe. Deer season doesn’t start for over a month (most of the local processors open up space before deer season, if they even rent lockers…) Brilliant! I’ll tell X-. Better yet, I should hunt some up myself and see if it’s even possible and then give her the phone numbers if it is.
And the mention of moats suggested that maybe we should consider that on the east (upslope) end of our house. Tough to do, but a U-shaped moat sending the water around the house, not under it, where it makes the floors warp (has already) would be a good idea.
Comment by tuppence — September 18, 2010 @ 7:41 am
A friend who was a documents librarian used a meat packer when she had to deal with the results of a flood.