Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 146

Working Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Yes, I’m working. Three guesses on what. “Writing is hard,” she whined. Also crocheting for sanity and about to tackle a stack of dishes so high the dogs are afraid to go into the kitchen. But mostly, it’s That Damn Book. Trying not to think about all the commemorative things that will drop tomorrow. Honestly, the hardest thing I’m working on now is optimism. But I can do. WE can do it.

Whatcha working on, Arghers?

The post Working Wednesday, September 11, 2019 appeared first on Argh Ink.

Nita Final Drafting, Now With Obscure Notes

One of the things that happens as I work on a final draft is making notes about the little stuff, like Button pushing her glasses up her nose in Act One and Two and then not again. It’s not major rewrite, just making sure that I hit everything I’ve set up, repeat motifs, that sort of thing. So I use sticky notes on my desktop (all virtual) and at the end, where I am now, I go back and try to make sense of them. Most of the time, I can, but there are always a few puzzlers. So in the interests of getting a Monday blog post up here, here are some of the notes I’ll be processing this afternoon. I’ll be finding them stuck all over the place and on pieces of paper strewn through out the house, but for now it’s this. Talk about whatever you want in the comments. Have a nice Monday!

Cold

Move Max and Daphne to Act 3

Mammon asks Max leading questions about Nick in diner

Hit the giant sloths twice more.

Talk to Astoria.

Astoria confesses, Act 2

Nita can see green with scupper

Stripe needs a personality

We’re still bitter about those sloths.

Moloch in Act 2

More Joyce

Spooky

Binky, Dorothy gets new bear

Brilliant idea

Frank

Jeo/Daphne as doomed

Marvella, Jason’s Mom

Max/Button: Make Lilith suffer

Nita/Nick romance, physical, on the page

Asshat, iffy

The DA in Act One and Two

Belia saves the mutts at the hellhound breeder

Antidote in Act 3

Mayor in Act 2

Mention Grandmas

Nick

Where’s Vinnie?

Dom in Act Two, Demon Island Daily

Poodles

Hit Joyce harder.

Breakfast Act Three, food specific

Socks: Cthulhu?

Marvella needs an edge, foreshadow the crazy

Team arc; Cthulhu

Do a three beat for Cecily, Dorothy, Astoria

Earth wants its giant sloths back

The post Nita Final Drafting, Now With Obscure Notes appeared first on Argh Ink.

Happiness is . . . uh, I don’t know.

Something’s up with the blog.  No idea what, but we’ll be on it.  If something horrible appears on here though, we’ve been hacked.

Wait, it’s happiness Sunday.  Okay, how about it’s gorgeous September weather and . . . I’ll have to think.  Ice cream sandwiches in the freezer?  Happy dogs?  A great new crochet project?

You tell me.  What’s happiness this week?

The post Happiness is . . . uh, I don’t know. appeared first on Argh Ink.

Cherry Saturday, September 7, 2019

September is Read a New Book Month.

Or as Argh calls it, any month, any day, any year . . . .

Although the lure of comfort reads is great, the pleasure of finding a great new book is better.   As for me, my plan is to start writing a new book soon.  That’ll be a thrill, let me tell you.

What new book did you read that was wonderful?

The post Cherry Saturday, September 7, 2019 appeared first on Argh Ink.

Your Friday Outtake

Have another Max and Button outtake where they do nothing to move the plot or their subplot or develop character or do anything of worth or note.  I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, but let’s look at the glass half full: It’s a blog post:

Max came back to end of the bar where Chloe was sitting, carrying a celebratory beer and a martini with three olives in time to see a drunken stranger come up beside her, put his arm around her, and say, “Honey, you are really cute.” 

“Oh, don’t,” Max said.

“You the boyfriend?” The drunk sized Max up, and since he probably had a hundred pounds on Max, he laughed.  “What are you going to do about it?”

Max sighed and put the drinks down.  “Probably save your worthless life.”

The drunk laughed again and turned back to Chloe, whose eyes were now gleaming with liquored-up homicidal rage.

“Do not call me cute,” Chloe said, as Joyce leaped down from the shelf, and hissed, her red eyes glowing.

“Oh, this is great,” the drunk said.  “Two cats, hissing at me.”

Chloe went for her ankle holster, and Max kicked the drunk in the back of the knee, grabbed his neck as he folded, smashed his forehead into the bar, and then dropped him on the floor.

 “Wow,” Chloe said straightening.  “That was efficient.”

“I’ve been here before with Mammon,” Max said, checking to make sure the drunk wasn’t getting up again any time soon.  “My boss can infuriate anybody.”

Rab came down the bar and leaned over to see the drunk.  “I suppose you had to.”

“He called Chloe cute and and then Joyce got off the shelf.”

“Oh.”  Rab nodded. “Then you had to.   It might be best if you were not here when he came to.”

“Hell, yes.” Max looked at Chloe.  “Come on, drink your olives and I’ll take you to dinner.  I think I can afford the Eurydice Grill.”

Chloe looked down at the drunk.  “I’ll buy. That was really very efficient.”

Max looked at Rab and spread his hands out.  “Who says I don’t have charm?”

“Everybody,” Rab said, and Max laughed and took Chloe away as Joyce jumped down on the drunk, kneaded him with her claws a couple of times, and then headed for the stairs, looking pleased.

The post Your Friday Outtake appeared first on Argh Ink.

This is a Good Book Thursday, September 5, 2019

I’ve been ordering books for the next WiP, so that’s cheering, but the only thing I’ve had time to read has been Nita.  I need something new.  

What do you recommend?

The post This is a Good Book Thursday, September 5, 2019 appeared first on Argh Ink.

Working Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019

I crocheted by battery-powered lantern last night because we had a five hour power outage and I couldn’t get into Dropbox to get my work.    I also couldn’t find my phone to take a picture of the crochet it was too dark too see.  It was Hell, I’m telling you.  Fortunately Margaret asked to see the old digital collage of Nita so I’ll show you that instead:

 

Several of these characters have been cut, and their personalities have morphed some so they don’t entirely fit anymore, but this was most accurate version I had.

This is better for Nick and Nita:

And this is where I started with Button and Max:

So what did you work on this week?

The post Working Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 appeared first on Argh Ink.

Have Another Nita Outtake

I’m spending too much time having fun with Max and Button. and not moving the story.  So this scene has to go because it does absolutely nothing to advance the plot.  Here you go, Argh, have an outtake from Act Three, which I am pleased to say is now 29,000 words which is close enough to the length I need.  This scene died in a good cause.:

 

When Max got back to the bar with Chloe, he saw Nita and Nick in the back room. So that’s all right.  He turned back to Chloe but Rab called him over. 

“You and Chloe Button?” Rab said in disbelief.

Max leaned closer.  “Do you have any idea how exciting it is to kiss a woman who’s genetically programmed to kill you?”

“Don’t sleep with her,” Rab said.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Max said.  Thinking about it, yes, planning on it, no.  “Why do you care?”

“I don’t.  Nick does.”

Max frowned.  “I’m pretty sure Nick is heading in Nita’s direction.”

“He’s not jealous.  He just doesn’t let us sleep with humans when we’re on the job.  Or ever.  So don’t make a pass.”

“She’s a Button,” Max said.  “Imagine the ways she can say ‘no.’”

“Good point,” Rab said and went down the bar in answer to one of the Hotels waving at him.

Except she might not say no, Max thought and looked back at Chloe.

She met his stare as he came back to her.  “Now what are you up to?”

“I lied to Rab, I’m planning my approach,” Max said, looking down into those blue demon-killing eyes.

Chloe frowned.  “Your approach to what?  Because if this is something for Mammon–”

“My approach to seducing you,” Max said.

“Oh.”  Chloe’s frown cleared.  “Making that move any time soon, demon?”

“It’s gonna take some thought.  I’m afraid you’ll kill me.”

Chloe sighed.  “Then it’s impossible.  I couldn’t possible have sex with a wimp.”

“That’s too bad,” Max said.  “I’m reallygood in bed.”

‘Not if you scream ‘Don’t shoot me!’ when you come.” Chloe began to turn away.

Max caught her by the arm and swung her back to him and kissed her again, and she kissed him back, roiling him with waves of lust and terror that he was almost getting used to.  

“This is a ridiculous relationship,” he told her.  “Although the fear adds a nice edge.” 

She laughed and wrapped her arms around him and nestled into him, and lust swamped the fear completely, and he gave up.

She probably won’t kill me, he thought and kissed her again.  

The post Have Another Nita Outtake appeared first on Argh Ink.

Talking Books

Krissie has gone home and I’m talking to the dogs again, but for five days. we talked books, mostly our work-in-progress books.  We’d read drafts of each other’s books so we knew enough about them to talk about them, and we discussed different problematical aspects of each WiP, arguing over some points (she was right on some, I was right on others, bless Google how did we ever work without it?) and taking apart some ideas.  It was tremendously helpful and now we have to get to final rewrites.

One of the big things for both of us was the Unsympathetic Heroine, and I think it came down to the same problem for both: no vulnerability.  Invulnerable characters have such hard, slick surfaces that it’s hard for readers to attach.  Her character, as she said, is wealthy with a great job and great breasts; my character is surrounded by people who respect her and never has an uncertain moment.  I told Krissie to go for less money. and smaller boobs, and I’m going to have to go with more isolation and uncertainty for Nita, and probably some loneliness, too.  

After that, for both of us, it’s looking at the big picture and the Usual Suspects of Fiction: Central Conflict, Plot Arc Through Acts, Character Development, etc.  And then some little things.  I let things drop in the story so I have to weave them through again (Vinnie is crucial in the beginning and then just disappears, Rab needs at least one more Brilliant Idea, etc.); meanwhile Krissie has to check some historical stuff although she was right about “cruising for a bruising,” they definitely said that in the forties.

One way I’m doing that is by obsessively making tables that trace characters through the acts.   That helps me make sure I haven’t dropped anybody (if I have, I need to either make sure they show up in each act, even if it’s. just to wave, or delete them entirely; sorry about that, Mort).  And after all my obsessing about the team, (yes, I have a table for that, too) it turned out that I do have a five-man band. Okay, it’s a six-man band, but it was nice to see everybody fit into the trope: Nita (mastermind),  Nick (thief), Button (hitter), Max (grifter), Jeo (lancer), and Rab (chick/heart).  I know, Nick’s really more of a lancer, and then Jeo assists him, but this has to be Nita’s book, plus Nick’s so confused for all of Act 3, that Nita has to mastermind.

So it is finally all coming together.  This part of the progress always feels like the August of the book,  the tipping point, the eve of completion, the point when the book just  needs a check (all those tables) and a polish.  All the big problems are identified,  we know how to solve them, and we can see the end of the process rushing toward us, after which, the summer of our disconnect from reality ends and we have to face the cold non-fiction of the publishing business.  

But right now, it’s still August in my mind, and I spent the past week talking books with my best friend. That’s a great end to a summer and to a writing process.

The post Talking Books appeared first on Argh Ink.

Happiness is Green

The Washington Post just did an article on some research that showed people are happier if they go somewhere that’s green, which Ellen Green already knew.  I couldn’t agree more: Whenever I start to freak, I look out at the trees and feel better.  Go sit in a park, Argh People, or your back yard if you have one.  Green is good.  

Also, it September first.  Happy New Year!  Oh, and also if you’re American, Happy Labor Day!

So how were you green with happiness this week?

The post Happiness is Green appeared first on Argh Ink.