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Daughter of Mystery Part 3
Dec. 3rd, 2011 01:27 pmWhen I originally started sketching out the overall plot arc for Daughter of Mystery, I divided it into 5 parts that had an amusing symmetry:
1 - Our heroines first get bound together by fate (and the machinations of the late Baron Saveze) in the country town of Chalanzin.
2 - Margerit connives to move her newly semi-independent household to the Big City (Rotenek) in order to attend university lectures (or, in her guardian's view, to mingle with a better quality and quantity of marriage prospects).
3 - Our heroines get tangled up in plots and need to flee for sanctuary (and regrouping) at the convent of Saint Orisul.
4 - Having gotten their act together (and certain legal issues coming to fruition), our heroines return to Rotenek to clear their names and triumph over their enemies.
5 - Our heroines undergo their second major romantic misunderstanding/falling-out and Margerit returns to Chalanzin to mope. Barbara pursues her there and all is resolved.
But although the geography has an amusing symmetry, the story structure is completely unbalanced with respect to the 5 parts with the following distribution of POV-let pairs:
1 - 10 pairs
2 - 13 pairs
3 - 2 pair
4 - 2.5 pair
5 - 0.5 pair
What this means is that although I have only just completed Part 2 of 5, in terms of expected verbiage I'm 82% done. (That's not counting the bits I've written ahead on, of course.) If I had the pages that are, in theory, being mailed to me from the BWI coffee shop (must check back if they don't show up in the mail today) I think I'd be in spitting distance of 100,000 words. Yes, I obsessively crunch the numbers.
1 - Our heroines first get bound together by fate (and the machinations of the late Baron Saveze) in the country town of Chalanzin.
2 - Margerit connives to move her newly semi-independent household to the Big City (Rotenek) in order to attend university lectures (or, in her guardian's view, to mingle with a better quality and quantity of marriage prospects).
3 - Our heroines get tangled up in plots and need to flee for sanctuary (and regrouping) at the convent of Saint Orisul.
4 - Having gotten their act together (and certain legal issues coming to fruition), our heroines return to Rotenek to clear their names and triumph over their enemies.
5 - Our heroines undergo their second major romantic misunderstanding/falling-out and Margerit returns to Chalanzin to mope. Barbara pursues her there and all is resolved.
But although the geography has an amusing symmetry, the story structure is completely unbalanced with respect to the 5 parts with the following distribution of POV-let pairs:
1 - 10 pairs
2 - 13 pairs
3 - 2 pair
4 - 2.5 pair
5 - 0.5 pair
What this means is that although I have only just completed Part 2 of 5, in terms of expected verbiage I'm 82% done. (That's not counting the bits I've written ahead on, of course.) If I had the pages that are, in theory, being mailed to me from the BWI coffee shop (must check back if they don't show up in the mail today) I think I'd be in spitting distance of 100,000 words. Yes, I obsessively crunch the numbers.
