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juniper: Demon Boy on Fire and Happy About It (critiques)
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 03:14 pm
I handed BRAWL the first three chapters of Iron Debt and said, "What's wrong with this?" I couldn't see anything wrong with it, but I knew there was. There always is, and with River's Wrath stuck in slush-pile purgatory, I have tremendous room for improvement here.

Well, they told me. Little devil boy up there is pretty much exactly how I feel about it. Ooo, scorchy! Yay, scorchy!! I'm probably going to have to sit down and assault using red pen. They don't want to see it again until it's done, but if I can whip the first three chapters, I am pretty sure I can *get* it done, because then, I'll have this *very* solid foundation to work on.

The Fabulous Margaret apologized afterward. She told me that she was sorry she'd been so harsh. I told her that was silly, and she should stop apologizing. It needed it, after all. :) And then we spent about an hour walking around, talking shop, and coming up with neat ideas for where I could go with it. I probably won't use all of them in Iron Debt, but I suspect that some of them will make it into Zytomancy.

Now, I just need to figure out where Ben Franklin is buried...
juniper: Typing at a computer. (Default)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 08:36 am
The fabulous Margaret has gone and got me working on a *different* novel. I talked to her over tea on Sunday night, and muttered about this thing that I'd been working on a long time ago, and blah blah blah, I was stuck.

And she gave me one Word. It was the Word I needed.

Having acquired this Word, I spent over an hour yesterday starting to outline this thing. It's wandered in so many different directions over the years, and there's so much...well, stuff, in there that doesn't need to be there, and isn't central to the story. (And some of it is really awful.)

Looking at it from a critical perspective too, there're plot holes *galore* in there that need clearing out too, and questions that must be answered in my own head, even if they're not down on paper.

Also, must do research, as one of the two protagonists needs to be Not An American. The other one is from a culture that I am creating, which requires worldbuilding - the culture is a bit too nebulous in my head, and I need to know enough of the relevant bits to clear this up.

But the basic story that I came up with, what, 7 years ago? That is usable. And now I have the necessary Word (word of power!) to make it work.

Because, of course, I really needed *another* novel to work on. :}