julian_griffith

 This began as a comment in unbroken_halo 's journal. She was complaining about being asked to show her characters falling in Insta-Love. She felt that it was more realistic for them to start from a place of lust and only develop their emotional connection and desire for long-term commitment after they'd acted on the physical attraction - that men especially think "yeah, I'd tap that" before any feelings of "omg I want to spend the rest of my life with you" develop, if they ever do.

There's a discussion that could happen about the gendered assumptions there, but this is not that discussion. Leaving that entirely aside, I agreed that physical attraction coming before romantic connection is both plausible and frequent, but romance-as-a-genre isn't necessarily about that - it's about the emotional payoff of the HEA, and sometimes that means making the story about having ALL THE FEELS. And so we kicked it around a little, and here is my comment that I want to share with you:

Project: Unnamed Christmas story
Market: Storm Moon Press, "22 Days of Yule" open anthology call
Deadline: October 15, 2012
Required length:15-20K
New words written: 1710
Present total wordcount: 3157
Mean things: Thorne is prone to angstbunnies
Fun things: Rockingham found an excuse to touch him too; added in baby rattle
Stimulants: ALL THE TEA, and avocado in my lunch
Reason for stopping: Wordcount achieved!

I spent far too much time on social media today. I'm trying to develop an order for how to attack them -- I have one window open for my personal accounts, and another one for the pen-name ones, and I want to do Dreamwidth first and then LJ for each of them, because if people are duplicating/crossposting (as I am) I'm trying to give preference to Dreamwidth, in case LJ goes splat, and I think my goal is to do this one first and personal second, and then there's the tumblrs and twitters... anyway, what with one thing and another, I didn't get around to writing until 2PM.

From there I proceeded to do 20/10s all the way through to 6PM and dinner, at which point I had 2500 words.

Two more and I was 15 words shy of 3K, but I wasn't entirely happy with it -- I was in the middle of an infodump, and I wanted to get back to dialogue.

One more and I had broken the infodump into two shorter paragraphs, stuck in a sentence at the beginning of the first one that had some observed physical action, which in its turn gave me a clew (yes, clew, like a string in a labyrinth) to follow out of the mopey reverie that was the infodump and INTO some damn DIALOGUE with OTHER CHARACTERS.

Who just happened to be Marcus and Alexander. And yes, the first paragraph of the infodump was That Story, YET AGAIN, and I'm getting better and better at shrinking it and stripping off all the identifying markers. And the second paragraph was Here Let's Have A Quick Recap Of The Novel's Arc, Because Nobody Will Have Read It. But now we get to have Marcus and Alexander and some secondary lovey-dovey behavior, and I swear I'm tempted to make "little girls get crushes on the dark, aloof, AND DID WE MENTION TOTALLY GAY naval officer with the curly hair and the big brown eyes" a running gag. It only got a throwaway sentence in the novel. Its other appearance isn't publishable. I could totally rework Crushy Little Girl for this one, right?

And I just remembered I only posted in the Monday Pride Thread under my personal name and not this one, so I'm going to do that now.

Project: Unnamed Christmas story
Market: Storm Moon Press, "22 Days of Yule" open anthology call
Deadline: October 15, 2012
Required length:15-20K
New words written: 320
Present total wordcount: 320
Mean things: the cook won't let Thorne help in the kitchen
Fun things: ginger biscuits
Stimulants: my usual morning coffee and sippy cup sports bottle of iced tea
Reason for stopping: stomachache

I started the Christmas story! I only worked on it for a total of 40 minutes today; I did one set of household chores in the morning, did two 20/10s of writing, ate lunch, and then the plan was to do another chore and then more writing before it was time to cook dinner, but I only got through one 20/10 on the chore (putting away the enormous pile of clothes on my bedroom chair) before my stomach let me know that work was OVER for the day, unless I wanted to work through a haze of pain.

Eventually I decided to move from the sofa upstairs to my bed. The half-finished pile of clothes mocked me, so I spent another twenty minutes on it and got it finished. Then I lay down with a heated rice sock on my stomach.

Still in bed. Thank goodness for laptops.

I'm guessing it might be the naproxen I took for cramps. I'd been using the OTC dose before, and getting only marginal results, but no stomach upset. This month I used the prescription stuff. I took it with food, the way you're supposed to, but I guess a bowl of Cheerios wasn't enough to cushion it.

I'm starting to feel a little hungry. I'm thinking rice porridge. Yeah, it's that unpleasant.

But I did start the story!

Project: Napoleonic Era Arthurian Romance With A Happy Ending
Deadline: Labor Day-ish
New words written: since my last update? 1186
Present total word count: 54317
Mean things: Sympathy just makes it harder
Fun things: Honest to God plays performed at Drury Lane in the time frame, though I fudged one by a month
Stimulants: Green tea, iced; white tea, iced

302 words of Lieutenant Lancelot reacting to the news of Viscount Arthur's impending marriage; 884 words of Miss Guinevere's letter to a school friend, explaining how the viscount has shown her particular attention, and how she thinks a proposal might be in the offing.

I spent an AWFUL lot of time with the calendars for 1804-1805 today. I swear this all started back in the early chapters with needing to know when Easter fell in 1802, and wanting accurate days of the week to head letters. Now it's taken on a life of its own, and I've been doing things like borrowing incidents from the Brest blockade in the given time frame (interestingly, the Wikipedia article on the HMS Pickle is a good resource for that). Today, I wanted to date Guinevere's letter, so I had to sort out when the proposal would have happened, which meant I really needed to know when the wedding was, and then I figured while I was at it, I'd better sort out the heir's birthdate and christening because the christening has to be enough after Trafalgar to let Lancelot get back to England. And then txanne pointed out that there are restrictions on christening dates in the Anglican calendar, so I had to push it and the birthdate back three weeks to get it out of Advent.

I also knew that, before the invention of the weekend, there was no particular reason for a wedding to be on Saturday, so I decided to look up whether there were any superstitions about lucky days of the week for weddings, like the Monday's Child rhyme about birthdays. (I know that there's an Orthodox Jewish custom about Tuesdays because that's the day of Creation where "And God said it was good" appears twice in the description, where the other days it only appears once.)

Naturally, there was one. There are superstitious rhymes for everything, I think.

Monday for wealth
Tuesday for health
Wednesday the best day of all
Thursday for losses
Friday for crosses
Saturday for no luck at all

and also for months:

Married when the year is new, he'll be loving, kind and true.
When February birds do mate, You wed nor dread your fate.
If you wed when March winds blow, joy and sorrow both you'll know.
Marry in April when you can, Joy for Maiden and for Man.
Marry in the month of May, and you'll surely rue the day.
Marry when June roses grow, over land and sea you'll go.
Those who in July do wed, must labour for their daily bred.
Whoever wed in August be, many a change is sure to see
Marry in September's shrine, your living will be rich and fine.
If in October you do marry, love will come but riches tarry.
If you wed in bleak November, only joys will come, remember.
When December snows fall fast, marry and true love will last.

So the viscount and his bride will be married on Wednesday, November 7, 1804.

Project: If Jane Austen Had Written Guinevere She Would Have Had Some Sense In Her Head
Deadline: Labor Day-ish
New words written: since my last update? 1017
Present total word count: 52222
Mean things: She has to ride sidesaddle
Fun things: She gets to jump a hedgerow anyway
Stimulants: I forgot to eat dinner

First half of the riding scene done. No bracketing for transitions or research this time; letting the dialogue and action carry it. I hope the readers like horses? Also, the viscount hasn't said much in this half of the scene, although he's been complimentary.

Next half, he gets to do more talking, because they're going to talk about the war. Also next half, I get to figure out what was in the picnic hamper that the little sister was so excited about. Peach tartlets, maybe?

I meant to set the timer for 30-on, 10-off, but didn't hit the start button, and by the time I figured that out, I was on a roll, so I went with it. About two hours of writing time, with a short break to prepare carrot sticks.

Not too bad, I think.

Project: Like Jane Austen, Only Slashy
Deadline: Labor Day-ish
New words written: since my last update? ~3K
Present total word count: 49600
Mean things: A mama who lectures and a father who teases
Fun things: Sisterly chat, with skin care remedies
Stimulants: I played the Withnail and I drinking game, albeit with sips of wine that added up only to one large glass, and the tipsiness is only wearing off now

It is much easier to develop characters through dialogue if you keep in mind that they are probably not only children.

The progression of the sisterly chat goes like this: hair styles->skin care->what Hannah Glasse would call "household economy" and a restaurant chef would call "cross-utilization"->marriage prospects->estimated land speed of gossip->marriage prospects again->the economic realities of a London Season->concluding thoughts on marriage.

Next up, when Rockingham arrives: the design of a riding habit, a little brother's ambitions, and the fortunes of war.

And that's STILL before they go riding.

And it'll kick me over the magic 50K!

In other news, it is still eminently possible for me to spend three hours looking into the duties of servants and reconstructing how many a middle-sized household might have had in order to get HALF A SENTENCE about who's laying the breakfast table. It hinged on whether they had a footman along with the butler, because if they didn't, it was a housemaid. I sorted out that they did have a footman but he was kind of a utility/floater manservant, because the household didn't have a giant staff. Thank you, fidelioscabinet!

Project: Age of Sail Arthurian Angsty Romance Novel
Deadline: Labor Day-ish (see below)
New words written: something like 3K since last I checked, but a chunk may be useless
Present total word count: 36506
Mean things: delayed reunion
Fun things: gambling for marzipan
Stimulants: coffee when I remember to drink it

Finished fleshing out the Return of Lazarus scene, if I can call it that; wrote two of the four letters for the epistolary interlude that will precede our boys' next meeting.

It is remarkably hard to write a letter in a character’s voice when that character’s education stopped at age 12 and was only a village school to begin with.

He’s learned to speak like a gentleman, but I seriously doubt he knows how to use a semicolon.

I refuse to introduce deliberate errors into his writing — again, he speaks correctly, if plainly (this is not a man who makes much use of the subjunctive, for instance), and screwing things up with comma splices would only distract the reader. I leave that to authors who wish to produce a comic effect with their characters — Georgette Heyer did some wonderful things with awkwardly-punctuated, randomly-capitalized letters from ditzy characters, for instance — and eschew it here.

Sadly, it seems to have the effect of making him sound more distant than he’s actually feeling as he writes.

I hope the viscount will be able to interpret it.

Also tried to write a chunk of a scene slightly ahead of where I am, with the lieutenant putting to sea once more (serving with his good friend the captain), and musing on their separation from their companions, because a friend was looking for stuff involving those two characters (so she'd be able to stop thinking about their voices and concentrate on a different thing she was writing), but I am not at all sure it came out right.

Next up after the epistolary interlude is a four-person dinner scene, which I roughed out AGES ago when eternaleponine and I were entertaining ourselves via text message. There's a fair amount about class differences encoded by clothing that sneaks in there, including the gap between those who had their portraits painted as children and those who'd never have dreamt of such a thing. I have also had the double-entendre dick joke that reveals the viscount's and the lieutenant's relationship to the other two planned for MONTHS. Dick jokes: your guide to quality literature. Shakespeare's full of them! Not to mention my possibly favorite passage in O'Brian, about the shining brass cannons on the Indiaman. "They do it voluntary-like: pooja, pooja, they say. They say their prayers to it, poor devils, because it reminds them of -- I hardly like to say what it reminds them of."

As usual, find myself poking the internet a great deal to feed the writing -- coaching roads and inns again (hello, A29!), and the garrison at Fort George on Guernsey, which led me to discover a small beach that the soldiers had been permitted to use, which is at the base of a cliff below the fort, and the fact that it's currently inaccessible because the path collapsed. THAT finally sparked a thing I could use in the viscount's letter, now that he's back with his regiment.

Also feeling very proud of myself because I managed to slip in a very casual biblical reference in my lieutenant's letter. I have to remind myself that religion was likely a far more present factor in these characters' lives than it ever was in my own. My English teachers were always pointing out that 19th-century writers would have been very familiar with the Bible and it would have greatly influenced their language, much more than any other literary source. And this biblical reference -- about a rain of frogs -- was also a little, sneaky bit of humour, because while the lieutenant SEEMS stern and serious, he's got a quiet talent for snark that often passes unnoticed. The rain of frogs was a thing he suggested as serious enough to make his mother late in producing a dinner.

This is definitely the Dreaded Middle of the Book, btw. And I suspect I've already written all the detailed sex scenes required -- there is a place where another one could go, but I don't think it would advance character or relationship development to show it in play-by-play detail, and I'd be better served to give it a descriptive gloss and focus on intimate conversation instead. So I'll just keep plugging through, trying to keep the story going, and not have it stall before I hit the build to the final arc.

Maybe I'll even send in a man with a gun.

Unlikely, but you never know.

ETA: Oh right. About that Labor Day deadline. A friend of mine has a project car she's been working on, irregularly, for possibly a year now. She thinks she'll have it rolling by July and streetworthy by Labor Day. I told her about the novel and how I thought I might be about halfway through, and maybe I could finish by then as well. She said, "Race you?" I said sure.

Project: From Stately Home To Thatched Cottage Romance Novel
Deadline: haven't got one
New words written: 1651
Present total word count: 31524
Reason for stopping: time to take my meds, and I think I know where this scene is going tomorrow
Mean things: scalding tea
Fun things: stain removal
Stimulants: Newman's Own dark chocolate peppermint cups

In which we finally meet the lieutenant's Ma.

She was rather more flustered at having a lord turn up on her doorstep than I'd thought she would be. She was incredibly wary. And even though the viscount was being very courteous and trying to set her at ease, it wasn't working. And I felt like she had no personality.

So mswyrr said "what if somebody spills something?" She had a scene from Mad Men in mind, something about a milkshake. I have not seen enough Mad Men to have seen that episode, but I could see where it was going.

A lord with his britches off, sitting in his drawers and stockings, while the widow cottager expertly gets the tea stain out of the wool, is a far less intimidating figure.

I actually googled "stain removal black tea wool" to write the scene.

And I got to geek out like a boss because I know damn well what's in a cottage kitchen. House museum volunteering!

But AUGH, it was slow going today.

Project: Even The B-Plot Has A Romance Romance Novel
Deadline: haven't got one
New words written: 1907
Present total word count: 28923
Reason for stopping: past my bedtime
Mean things: delaying the reunion, prize-agents who take the money and run
Fun things: well, I amused myself renaming the landlady
Stimulants: No dinner
Words Word don't know: I'm giving up on this. There's hardly any point in a historical novel. Fantasy novels use much weirder words.

Still no lieutenant's Ma. However, the two scenes I got today occur shortly AFTER that one, and are the first appearances of secondary characters who got mentioned back in the first chapter. First, one grieving boyfriend who can't yet be told everything's all right; then, one young Lazarus who is none too pleased to hear that he has to wait three more days to see his grieving boyfriend and put things right, or else risk spoiling all the careful work that allowed his resurrection.

Young Lazarus has the fierce temper one would expect of a redhead of Scottish ancestry, London upbringing notwithstanding. The lieutenant, who was at sea before young Lazarus was born, will brook no nonsense from him. Fun for me, if not for them.

It's all dialogue, almost, because that's what happens during data entry: I hear voices. Conversations. I suppose if I'm trying NOT to sound mad I should just call it dialogue.

Had to skip lunch because I HAD TO WRITE IT DOWN, so I wouldn't lose it. That took care of the Grieving Boyfriend conversation, at least. Young Lazarus had to stay in my head until I got home... and then I had to eat something, and then I needed a nap, because the grieving boyfriend had kind of worn me out with the grief. He's had me in literal tears before, so this was a slight improvement, I guess.

But I got the words down, and even though they are very rough draft, they are a SHAPE to build on.

So I'm glad.

Project: Unconventional Unintentionally Arthurian Romance Novel
Deadline: haven't got one
New words written: 2315 (some of these are notes)
Present total word count: 24572
Reason for stopping: bedtime
Mean things: Alexander being disapproving
Fun things: Phoebe is made of awesome
Stimulants: data entry, Coca-Cola
Words Word don't know: nothing worth mentioning

I continue to write stuff that goes in the second half. Apparently doing mindless data entry makes the characters have involved conversations in my head. Ones that I can't write down as they occur because the IRS is very serious about security, and we can't have pen or paper at our workstations. I can only scribble things down during breaks.

Today I had a really entertaining conversation in which Caroline was introduced to Phoebe Craddock, the actress. I was glad to hear it, because I could tell it actually served a purpose in the narrative, and it let me bring Phoebe in in person. Because I love her and she is made of awesome and it would have been a shame to know she existed and not have been able to use her.

The other thing was a conversation between Alexander and Rockingham that I think might actually be the final scene. It's a bit fragmentary, as I couldn't write it all down when I heard it and some of it evaporated, but I think I got enough to serve as a draft, and I can fix it up and make it smooth later. Alexander, being in a really tight exclusive pair bond, has some trouble understanding a three-way relationship -- at first he sees it conventionally, as breaking vows, and he totally disapproves of William for partaking in it. Alexander and Rockingham are really good at pushing each other's buttons, although the part I got down started in the middle of the button-pushing, with Rockingham giving Alexander a bitchy answer to I don't know exactly what criticism. Anyway, Rockingham manages to explain it in a way Alexander finds sympathetic, and their friendship is renewed. In the process, he explains how the Happily-For-Now will work, so it makes a good ending scene. No good last line as yet, but that'll come. As a draft, I like it.

Thorne's Ma is still vague. I'll get there. Right now I'm glad to have words.