Alpennia: the pesky pregnancy

[hrj]

I was busy transcribing text for what was supposed to be chapter 1 of Mother of Souls and I realized that the impending pregnancy discussed in that chapter just didn't work at all in terms of timing and needed to be put off for a year. Which meant that chapter 1 needed to be removed entirely since that discussion was the only reason for having that particular POV character lead off the book. This, of course, created a cascade of minor changes and shifts of events and information, but I think I have it all sorted out again now. This actually shaves one chapter off the outline because all the material from the original chapter 1 goes into other existing chapters. It all works out. And now the book opens with a chapter introducing the one viewpoint character that we've never met before, which feels like it works better for its own sake. At the same time, I shifted another event back to the viewpoint character it makes most sense for, which means a slight but innocuous rearrangement of dates, but one rather chock-full chapter. I think it will work because that particular chapter is supposed to feel like the entire universe is dumping everything down on Margerit's head at once. The trick will be not taking too long to tell it all. But that's chapter 22, so it'll be a while before I get there.

Best of luck to all the NaNoWriMo folks! As usual, I'm just keeping to my usual "write something every day and keep plugging away" schedule. I've been thinking of trying to set up a weekly writing goal, in hopes of getting a better handle on how long the current writing projects will take to finish, but at the moment I feel like just keeping the forward moment is the most important thing.

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

This is so familiar to me. I start out knowing everything that will happen, start writing--and realize I'm wrong. I've had to shift whole wars and epidemics around.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The problem with the pesky pregnancy is that it has to occur at a particular time of year, but the opening chapter is too early (happening too hard on the heels of the events at the end of The Mystic Marriage). Conversely the character who gets pregnant needs to have a particular consequence of the pregnancy not occur to her in advance, and it may be tricky to arrange that.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

tricky!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

the entire universe is dumping everything down on Margerit's head at once.

A very common feeling when you're in a university setting...