getting there

Word count:
Project:

I'm slowly gearing up for the second draft of Flashback. I still need a legit name for that. I named it that because this was the second time I tried to write this story and actually had a grasp on it, and certain scenes gave me flashbacks to being an awkward 14-year-old with no grasp of political or warring states but trying in vain and failing miserably. Not because it had anything to do with the story.

Rida's helped a ton with research. And by a ton, I mean a TON. I mean an entire Evernote notebook. I mean thousands of words (given, just C&P'ing Wikipedia sometimes, but still). We're cautiously evaluating the world I've built and making it stronger or deciding what really is artistic license. Just thinking about how to incorporate all of that into the novel exhausts me, but most of it won't be there. This is the advantage of an ignorant, myopic, unreliable POV character! YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH ALL SORTS OF NARRATIVE SHIT AND BE SPECTACULARLY LAZY. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH.

I mean, you see all those character who just know Everything. They drop exposition bombs constantly. They're savvy and cool and aware and how the bloody hell do you write any kind of twist like that? Where is the misleading, the deception, the suspense, the red herrings and Chekhov's guns lying helter-skelter?

And I don't know, I just thoroughly enjoy mindfucks, so hey. It's hard to mindfuck someone who knows everything and is too strong to be shaken.

Keely? Hell, she spends like 20,000 words (on and off) panicking over birth control because she doesn't know the right vocabulary or the methods of acquiring it in the culture that she's in. She is BARELY competent and spends a lot of time bonding with the field medic. I dearly hope that, given some kind of Strong Female Character test, she would fail it miserably. (I should go find one!) Sabine and Lucia would probably pass with flying colors--Lucia is actually my favorite--but Keely is designed to be weak and is nicknamed after baby animals for a reason. That said, I still love her.

...That was a totally unplanned rant.

What I wanted to say was that I'm letting thoughts for the second draft percolate and incubate a little, and I tried to do the same survey for Adrian that I did for Keely early on to get a feel for her voice, and he was the quietest little bugger. It took until question like, 80 to start to get anything useful out of him. Figures.