Pico day 20

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Here is the post for any comments, snippets or thoughts.

May the magic be with us all!

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

The Wimsey/Harriet bodyswap continues. Only 370 words managed, but it is moving. Hopefully more tomorrow. Alas, today's section isn't very amendable to an extract, which is another incentive to work tomorrow!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

370 words is excellent progress; it will soon build up. Looking forward to another extract when you're ready.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

As long as they're good words, it's fine. :)

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for movement! I am looking forward to the finished work.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Yay for forward momentum! Looking forward to tomorrow's excerpt.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

That counts as pretty good progress to me.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, you just can't pull a bit to coherently quote...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Good progress!

Terminus finished

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

No, really! I've written the whole last chapter and the - admittedly very short - Epilogue in just two days. That's the fastest writing I've ever done in my 47 years of an author (yes, I started at the tender age of 12 and my classmates read my western story under their desks during maths lesson, which led to all sorts of complications, but that's a story for another time *g*).

Anyway, I'm well pleased. No new snippets yet - I'll devote the next couple of days to typing up stuff and editing and so on. But Chapters 7 & 8 have come back from my wonderful beta today. Chapter 7 can already be read here (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11209905/7/Terminus), and Chapter 8 will be posted to FF.Net in a few days, too. Enjoy!

I'll go and catch up with all the missed posts now. *waves*

Re: Terminus finished

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Wow! No wonder you're feeling pleased. I'm in awe at your productivity! School being over has obviously done wonders for your creativity.

RE: Terminus finished

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Yay! Congratulations on finishing it!

RE: Terminus finished

[saki101.livejournal.com]

As you should be! (I like the glimpse of classroom insubordination there.)

RE: Terminus finished

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! Sounds like you're really storming along.

RE: Terminus finished

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Many congratualtions on finishing the whole thing.

RE: Terminus finished

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

You really are doing splendidly! (I know what you mean about starting young too, I recall humble and very young scribbles in an old exercise book)

RE: Terminus finished

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finishing!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

No writing for the last few days as rl decided to throw something horrible at me. I'm hoping to get back into writing after the weekend, but possibly picking something easier to write to start with (as Firiel has so many characters and so many complications of canon and plausibility).

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry about that. I know how disruptive to creativity that can be. Hoping things improve very soon.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry to hear that, too. *hugs*

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that - hope the horribleness is resolved speedily.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Got back to what's now chapter 8 of The Jade Dragon this evening, starting to try to consolidate all my layers upon layers of old & new edits. This one was among my favourites & most of it doesn't seem to have done the turning-to-lead trick too badly since I last looked. Phew. I'd like to slot in a subtle little bit of dreaming if I can work out how to make it not too anvilly, but the rest's done. Have a snippet, mainly original with a bit of editing...

I was at the bar settling my tab when the girl from upstairs brought her cloak. The two stood together for a moment while the girl wrapped the thing around Coral and it hit me what the princess had been hinting at earlier. ‘Pretty girl,’ I said when we’d cleared the place.

‘Isn’t she?’ went the princess.

The rain had stopped. Even the city’s weather seemed to dance to the royal princess’s tune. We stood side by side at the rusting dockside railings like lovers. The jade dragon reared over our heads. It might have been romantic if there’d been any water to reflect the thing but the tide was out. A rotting wooden trawler squatted on the foreshore like the carcass of a whale. The harbour mud reeked of sewage even in winter.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

That's an intense, dark description. The weather may be dancing to the princess's tune, but many other processes are following their own.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

After going up to Leeds this morning, I mostly spent the afternoon shelving books (I'm about halfway through the Front Room batch, complicated by the distinctly 20th Century TV blocking where I want to stand my Victorian stepladder: I'll rearrange things in the morning). I also submitted the first of many overdue book reviews, and typed an opening paragraph for the next one. Meanwhile. I've managed to type up one chapter of red pen edits this evening, and shall do the next one in the morning. Rupert is examining a one out of series of paintings by a 17th Century artist:

The painting, Mr Steyne and Lady Anne, occupied a central position in the corridor, although Rupert it was not on any of the main routes through the house. The rooms leading off the corridor were bedrooms, now used mainly for storage, and only the first of the five was laid out for visitors to look at. Perhaps if Rupert was going to spend more of his school holidays with Papa, he might suggest to Grandmama that they tidy up some of the other bedrooms. All looked very different to each other and he was certain some visitors might appreciate viewing their furniture, and decorations.

Judging by his portrait, Mr Steyne had been a studious, Puritanical gentleman, who must have stayed at the Lodge during its occupation, while the King and Rupert the Cavalier were in exile abroad. Had Rupert been exiled with the King? The modern Rupert flicked through his guide book in search of answers. Rupert the Cavalier had been promoted from a lowly baron to the Duke of Derwent Dale in 1661, in recognition of his services to the King while in exile. The book did not, however, tell where Rupert had spent his exile.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

You're making steady progress with your edits around a lot of other calls on your time -- kudos! I love the device of using artworks to tell the story and I'm enjoying the family history that's emerging here.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Today was a washout, I'm afraid. I broke the Golden Rule and picked up one of the new books I bought recently at a fair, just intending to read a bit...

I am now two-thirds of the way through it, and have done absolutely NOTHING of any use all day :(

(On the other hand, 'tis a good book )

[saki101.livejournal.com]

New books are so hard to resist.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Just a tiny bit again and possibly over the top at that.

***

The pause in the narrow space between the first iron door and the second would have been barely noticeable to a hypothetical witness, time for a last thought before committing to the termination of the day, for a quick review of items gathered to be taken along, for small legs to race across the room. There was no one to see, no surveillance in the lair of he who surveils.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understand this but I like it, especially time for a last thought before committing to the termination of the day, for a quick review of items gathered to be taken along, for small legs to race across the room.

[candidlily.livejournal.com]

74 words tonight in a frenzy before bed! Day 2 of HeroesCon and day 20 of writing every day are both a success! \o/

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

\o/ Sometimes those last minute "fuck it, I will write something, anything" moments work surprisingly well.