Writing: The Long Game
Aug. 8th, 2021 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyykiThere was a time when I wrote at short lengths. I did a lot of 1000 word work, and I've written some 100 word stories too. I prided myself on being able to turn out a tight muscular story without much extra in it at all -- get in, deal with the thing neading to be handled, and get out.
My most recent submissions to Magnets and Ladders (www.magnetsandladders.org),a site that only accepts 2500 words or less have been difficult, because I'm not writing much at that length anymore. The last novel I finished hit 1003 pages, and I may have a couple more sidebars to get into it, I'm not sure about that yet.
My current novel in process hit 501 pages in the last 30 minutes or so, and I've got several things to deal with before I get to the big climax. I guess this has something to do with creating characters that have personalities of their own and go in directions I didn't expect.
The two disciplines are so different in focus. Phillip K. Dick put it so well, "The short story is about a murder, the novel is about a murderer." I can't do the tight muscular writing when I have to get inside my main character's head so much and also make her friends three-dimensional people with their own ideas, loves, and experiences. And I have to write the Mardi Gras trip with all that entails, help a secondary character find his missing sister, get the guy crushing on my main character bundled off with the girl he's going to marry, get an apprentice trained, remake the modern wizarding culture and way of doing things, deal with an assault on the house, fire off several chekhovian guns on the mantle, and oh yeah, get to the showdown with the family that wants several characters, including my main character and her family, killed. Note that'll leave my main character without a significant other, a choice of a college or major, and depending on if this all takes place within 4 story years maybe still in high school. And that's all within the story, so there's also writing up the sourcebook for folks who want to play in that sandbox, write (so far) about 70 new spells, finish several articles and columns I'm referencing but that aren't ready for submission yet, and write up the world document so not only will people have the modern fantasy setting rules but also have the world to play in as well. So it's sort of a massive undertaking. (for those of you who like puns, it's like burying a 600 lb. person)
I'm lucky that it's still fun to do all this. But I don't know what'll be next, or if the "Kimetic" symphonic work, which may or may not become an opera, will crowd its way to the front of the line. I also have seven more pagan masses to do, including some revision on the Imbolc Mass to get it functioning thematically with the others in the cycle, and multiple albums worth of songs to sequence while learning a different digital audio workstation program and getting familiar with my audio interface well enough to record something people will want to hear. I've also got recipes and multi-course menus in this current novel I want to write up and test, like turning a cheddar ale soup into a fondue or exploring my own catfish corn chowder recipe. (It's sort of interesting how this novel is working my recipe creativity while the prior one dealt so much with music stuff, including a full set of lyrics for one tune, and additional sidebars will be other sets of lyrics)
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
My most recent submissions to Magnets and Ladders (www.magnetsandladders.org),a site that only accepts 2500 words or less have been difficult, because I'm not writing much at that length anymore. The last novel I finished hit 1003 pages, and I may have a couple more sidebars to get into it, I'm not sure about that yet.
My current novel in process hit 501 pages in the last 30 minutes or so, and I've got several things to deal with before I get to the big climax. I guess this has something to do with creating characters that have personalities of their own and go in directions I didn't expect.
The two disciplines are so different in focus. Phillip K. Dick put it so well, "The short story is about a murder, the novel is about a murderer." I can't do the tight muscular writing when I have to get inside my main character's head so much and also make her friends three-dimensional people with their own ideas, loves, and experiences. And I have to write the Mardi Gras trip with all that entails, help a secondary character find his missing sister, get the guy crushing on my main character bundled off with the girl he's going to marry, get an apprentice trained, remake the modern wizarding culture and way of doing things, deal with an assault on the house, fire off several chekhovian guns on the mantle, and oh yeah, get to the showdown with the family that wants several characters, including my main character and her family, killed. Note that'll leave my main character without a significant other, a choice of a college or major, and depending on if this all takes place within 4 story years maybe still in high school. And that's all within the story, so there's also writing up the sourcebook for folks who want to play in that sandbox, write (so far) about 70 new spells, finish several articles and columns I'm referencing but that aren't ready for submission yet, and write up the world document so not only will people have the modern fantasy setting rules but also have the world to play in as well. So it's sort of a massive undertaking. (for those of you who like puns, it's like burying a 600 lb. person)
I'm lucky that it's still fun to do all this. But I don't know what'll be next, or if the "Kimetic" symphonic work, which may or may not become an opera, will crowd its way to the front of the line. I also have seven more pagan masses to do, including some revision on the Imbolc Mass to get it functioning thematically with the others in the cycle, and multiple albums worth of songs to sequence while learning a different digital audio workstation program and getting familiar with my audio interface well enough to record something people will want to hear. I've also got recipes and multi-course menus in this current novel I want to write up and test, like turning a cheddar ale soup into a fondue or exploring my own catfish corn chowder recipe. (It's sort of interesting how this novel is working my recipe creativity while the prior one dealt so much with music stuff, including a full set of lyrics for one tune, and additional sidebars will be other sets of lyrics)
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-09 04:35 pm (UTC)At least your characters didn't decide to become your headmates, too. xd *Looks pointedly right at Craimar*
Wouldn't change a damn thing, but still.
Also, which audio program are you trying to figure out? Just curious.
Also, alsoo: dear gods I wish I had the kind of time and focus you do for all that. I do good to sit down at the same time and write these days, much to tghe chagrine of said headmates.
-T~
no subject
Date: 2021-08-09 05:55 pm (UTC)It's looking like it's going to be Reaper, as that's still the most blind accessible option going right now. I've also got Samplitude thanks to the kindness of a friend who bought me a license, but it's a few revisions back and it uses more side programs to make it blind accessible. Reaper also has the advantage that I can set my sequencer of choice (QWS) as the MIDI editor, and there are some things I've been lobbying for coming out in the next revision.
I'm sort of Lucky with characters. Jenn Marcus is staying in Déjà vu and Déjà vu 2 right now, though there have been some hints. My roommate cursed me with doing a third one, but though I have an idea where that might go I'm not set up for that right now, and DV2 expanded the main cast way out. I've got things lingering that I can work on, but which one will jump out and grab me when Holly Xavier's story is done (or done enough) is up in the air.
I wish I could find someone playing the flutes and any other set pitch instruments from that case of musical instruments they dug up near the Sekhmet temple in Karnack. I want to know what scale they used so I can construct the main and counter melodies and start working out the setting for the opening of the symphonic work so I can find out if I'm going to require a libretto or just a narrarator. I know my vocal forces will be small -- the damned, the damned's brother or sister, and maybe Anubis. That work keeps lingering in the back of my mind, so it might not be formed enough yet to make it ready to emerge.
I get to do this because I don't get to do much else. I spend a lot of time here at the house with no way to get out. TXDOT gets attitudinal if I go driving somewhere for some odd reason, and I need to stay out of the sun because my anti-rejection meds make me more prone to skin cancer. That leaves me a lot of time in front of the computer, and the three PBEM RPGs don't take up near enough time to keep my mind from wandering around in the worlds I create. What's surprising me the most is my focus -- I tend to work on several things at once as inspiration hits, but I've been working almost on one thing to the exclusion of anything else.
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
Sent from my HAL 9000 in transit to Jupiter