sympathetic magic

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Thu 21 Oct 2010

Full of sound, some fury

Posted by PJ under carmilla, novels, sympathetic magic, writing
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And so I’m off again on what appears to be yet another novel. I got close to 14k on the other one, Sympathetic Magic, before I realized it just wasn’t coming together. Inside me, mostly. I wasn’t seeing and feeling it like I should and it stopped going.

So I’m letting it rest now and I’ve got this other thing that’s been obsessing me. Since I have no deadlines, as a wise friend pointed out, I might as well take advantage of that luxury to work on something that’s really speaking to me. I hope this one takes.

This character, Carmilla, will be a challenge to bring off. She isn’t particularly sympathetic, although I hope she finds redemption by the end of things. She’s holding her cards close to the vest, though, and not showing me. She’d better give me a glimpse soon. I think she just wants to play with me for a while longer. She does have a cruel streak.

Here’s the opening—still very rough and new.

(more…)

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Tue 21 Sep 2010

As the crud recedes

Posted by PJ under critiques, sympathetic magic, writing
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Still home with the crud, but there are signs that health may be returning. I will almost certainly go back to work tomorrow.

I’ve felt blech since Saturday so I haven’t touched Sympathetic Magic since my regular writing session on Friday. *sigh* I hope to get back to that tomorrow, too, but I haven’t had that kind of concentration. I worked through some scenes in my head as I laid around feeling blechy. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten what I figured out in the interim. It seems a bit vague now, but I’m hopeful that when I re-read the previous session from Friday, it will all come back to me.

I have done some reading-for-critique so I haven’t been totally useless. I’ll have to go back over those comments when I’m fully sane just in case…I wasn’t fully sane when I made them.

Life creeps forward, and so do I.

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Tue 14 Sep 2010

And so it begins again

Posted by PJ under sympathetic magic, word count
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I am not a daily meter kind of gal, but maybe I’ll post this weekly. Unless I don’t feel like it. Since the word meter neither helps nor hinders me, it’s sometimes a random kind of thing.

I’ve added a megaton of stuff to chapter one and am now worried that I’ve buried my hook, but I’m pushing forward from this point. I’ll have to worry about that/edit that at some future point.

I actually think I have two hooks, though one is rather mild: a family mystery up front, and a major hook at the end of the chapter. It’s hard to say at this point (perspective!) if that will be an effective way of drawing in the reader. Only time will, etc., etc., etc.

Sympathetic Magic


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Fri 10 Sep 2010

Chatty folks

Posted by PJ under sympathetic magic, WIP, writing
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Once I gave my main character, Molly, in the new WIP permission to tell me about herself, she’s been going crazy with the information.  Chatter, chatter, chatter.  Her, her Uncle Dray, her Grandma Theodora.  Which is good—it adds all those nice layers I need.  Which could be bad down the road—too much information, probably, that will have to be cut.  But I don’t seem to be able to do this process any other way.  I seem to be stuck with writing large and cutting down.

I’ve essentially rewritten the same three pages for the last three days, which is not as grim as it sounds.  I start off on page one to read through it and before long, Molly’s off on some tangent, adding and padding material.  What was originally page three now begins on the bottom of page five.  I’ve added about 1100 words to the opening.  More than that, I’ve added pages and pages of notes and charts, figuring things out, seeing where the connections take me, broadening the picture of this family.  It’s all good, all what I need to know.

Even if I wind up cutting a lot of it.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the title poll.  Sympathetic Magic edged out Time in a Bottle, and after giving it due consideration, I decided to let my prejudice against Time in a Bottle make my decision.  I’m going to be calling this novel Sympathetic Magic for the time being.

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