Writer stuff
Oct. 24th, 2005 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonOver the weekend I was thinking that perhaps my next project should be to turn one of my novellas into a novel (and neither has vampires!). One is "Sealed with A Curse" which is really a long novelette, coming in at just over 15k; the other is "Hortensia's Man," just shy of 31k. I'm thinking it would take less time to produce finished novels from either of these than starting from scratch with another. I'm trying to play the percentages here, to have more "product" in the pipeline, but it's hard to tell where the true percentages lie. I want to write Charged with Folly, but my perception at this stage is that it will take much longer.
"Curse" has some problems with research I'm not ready to tackle at this point in time, but the 15k that's set in the 18th century would be just a small part of the novel, anyway. Mostly, it's a contemporary fantasy harkening back to events in 1727. "Hortensia" takes place entirely in the Nineteenth Century and I'm sure that anyone who knows early California history would find plenty wrong with it--but the good thing about that story is that very little of it takes place in Known History. The bulk of the story, part one (the 30k novella) and part two, as yet unwritten, take place in a made up valley away from most of the centers of European population and history. California was sparsely populated with the European-descended in the early 19th century. That's the history I'm mostly going to be dealing with in that story. But even there, the particular tribe I'm writing about is also a made up tribe: based on the mores of California Indian tribes I've read about, but still made up.
Since there's more of "Hortensia" and since she's been lobbying for a novel of her own ever since she first popped into my brain; since I've done tons of intricate worldbuilding on the Dos Lunas valley already, maybe that's the way to go. Do I have 50k more words in me to make this a novel? Initially I want to say, "Hell, yeah." But I wonder. Is the conflict strong enough? I can't quite tell until I get in there and start playing around.
And I haven't finished Night Warrior yet. And I think everyone's sick of it, so that isn't helping my motivation any. "You are a self-motivator, Pam," I remind myself. Yeah, I am, but sometimes I live reflected in the eyes of others. So sue me.
"Curse" has some problems with research I'm not ready to tackle at this point in time, but the 15k that's set in the 18th century would be just a small part of the novel, anyway. Mostly, it's a contemporary fantasy harkening back to events in 1727. "Hortensia" takes place entirely in the Nineteenth Century and I'm sure that anyone who knows early California history would find plenty wrong with it--but the good thing about that story is that very little of it takes place in Known History. The bulk of the story, part one (the 30k novella) and part two, as yet unwritten, take place in a made up valley away from most of the centers of European population and history. California was sparsely populated with the European-descended in the early 19th century. That's the history I'm mostly going to be dealing with in that story. But even there, the particular tribe I'm writing about is also a made up tribe: based on the mores of California Indian tribes I've read about, but still made up.
Since there's more of "Hortensia" and since she's been lobbying for a novel of her own ever since she first popped into my brain; since I've done tons of intricate worldbuilding on the Dos Lunas valley already, maybe that's the way to go. Do I have 50k more words in me to make this a novel? Initially I want to say, "Hell, yeah." But I wonder. Is the conflict strong enough? I can't quite tell until I get in there and start playing around.
And I haven't finished Night Warrior yet. And I think everyone's sick of it, so that isn't helping my motivation any. "You are a self-motivator, Pam," I remind myself. Yeah, I am, but sometimes I live reflected in the eyes of others. So sue me.
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Date: 2005-10-24 12:18 pm (UTC)let's not speak of such a suggestion again, okay? ;-)
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Date: 2005-10-24 02:13 pm (UTC)I like Charged and would like to see where you go with it, but I also liked Hortensia. Since I was left hanging with that one I'd like to see what happens next.
Oh, BTW, how are you mutilating Arthur?
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Date: 2005-10-24 02:44 pm (UTC)I'd love to know what's going to happen with Hortensia, too. Not to mention the folks in Charged with Folly. :-)
And I'm not mutilating Arthur. I'm just vamping his myth.