Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 149

Cherry Saturday, August 10, 2019

Today is Lazy Day.  

What are you not going to do today? 

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This is a Good Book Thursday, August 8, 2019

I’ve been doing so much re-reading lately that I began to wonder: is reading an old favorite a safety issue?  That is, I know I’m going to love it, so there’s no risk involved?  Is this the belt-and-suspenders, keep-the-training-wheels-on, don’t-go-out-after-dark version of entertainment?  Because I’m rewatching movies, too (Red never disappoints) and TV (David Tennant’s Doctor Who, I’d forgotten how great he was), so I’m thinking yes on this.  Which means I must become more adventurous.  New stuff, Jenny, try new stuff.  

How adventurous was your reading this week?

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Working Wednesday, August 7, 2019

I knew I was feeling better when I started to crochet again; I’m almost done with the ginormous Secret Paths I started in July, done in Aran wool because who doesn’t want to work with heavy wool in a heat wave?  Then Krissie told me about the Gypsy Wife Quilt and I want to make that, so now I just have to decide if I want to start quilting again or do it in crochet.  And then she sent me pictures of the Bookcase Quilt, which has titles embroidered on strips of fabric to look like book spines.  She’s going to make one with all her titles–that’s gonna be a task, over 100 books–but mine would go faster because I’ve only written twenty.  And I’d definitely do that as a quilt.  Plus I have to turn her walking thing into a [deleted] caravan.  So I’m good on crafts, even before I get to hanging all the storage stuff in my kitchen.

What are you up to?

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So Let’s Define a “Darling”

It’s 3:50 on Tuesday afternoon, August 6, I have gone out and stocked up on Diet Coke (and bok choy and mushrooms, but that’s another story) and I still haven’t cut much from Act One because even though I know that complication sequence with the 8000 words must be cut back savagely, I like everything in it.  Well, I’m a big fan of my writing, so I would.  So accepting that I’m going to be cutting things I like, the next step is to winnow darlings, aka The Parts I Like That People Will Probably Skip.

 

A darling per William Faulkner is something in your story that you love that isn’t necessary.  (He also may have been thinking of those parts where you went overboard at the Great Writer thing and should have slapped yourself for being pretentious and annoying, but for the purposes of this blog post, it’s about what’s necessary.). As writers, we tend to feel that anything we love is necessary, but this is unfortunately not true.  So at this point, we’re down to “What’s necessary?”  And there is necessary stuff in this ginormous sequence, it’s just necessary for me to set-up the next three acts, not essential to the story in the now.  Which means it has to go and I’ll have to fold in that info somewhere else or do without.  So what’s in that sequence that I (think I) need?

• The Mayor threatens Nick: The Mayor as a threat. and a block to the romance, the Mayor knows about demons, Nita’s mother is lethal, Nick’s going to see Nita again anyway.  

It’s important to keep hitting Nita’s mother as dangerous because the reveal in Act Two is so ridiculous.  I like the Mayor as a character, particularly as he functions in Nita’s father plot, but I’m not sure he’s utilized enough to get this scene.  OTOH, his knowing about demons adds another layer to the mystery, and this does strengthen the romance, albeit very slightly.  Argh.  Not sure about this.

• The Captain interrogates Button: Intros the Captain, Button’s loyalties are tested, somebody is sabotaging Nita

I need a Button PoV scene, but I got that in the car in the home invasion sequence.  I can intro the Captain in her scene with Nita.  Might be able to get a lot of this in the “Nita and Button confer” scene, which is also a Button PoV.  I think this has to go, although I do like the way Button sticks up for Nita here.  

• Nick asks Vinnie about Nita and her family:  Nick’s background, which s going to show up in the Nita and Button confer scene.  Nick’s feeling of pity for Vinnie, showing his shift to human.  Vinnie’s suit.  Nick’s conversation with Belia to set up what’s going on in Hell.  The Mr. Crome set-up.  Jimmy is missing set-up.

Yeah,  this is all over the place.   Nick’s just checking in before he goes out to investigate, so I can cut a lot of this.   Not sure how important Jimmy the ghost is here, so can probably cut that.  Mr. Crome disappears after Act One, but I like him; still, either find a function for him in the later acts or cut him (argh).  

• The Captain interrogates Nita: Sabotage, weird duty.

This is more pressure on Nita and has to be set-up; maybe up the conflict and get in the info that was in the Button scene?

• Nita and Button confer: Nick in history, Nita and Button working together.

This is important because of the Nita and Button working together bit, their part of the team forming.  And the history is the set-up for Act Three and it has to be in here although I can cut it back.  There must be a way to combine this with the Lily and Jason scene that comes later and cut most of one of them.

• Nick walks through Deville, sees the Municipal Building:

I can cut this back.  It’s just a fun list of business names ending with the Municipal Building that looks like the Pandemonium.  

• Nita and Button talk to Jason and Lily.

Yeah, move this up to the previous Button and Nita team scene.

 
• Nita interrogates Vinnie: She gets confirmation of Nick’s back story, invitation to lunch, his itinerary, and scares Rab when he realizes who she is.  

I can do all but “scares Rab” in a summary sentence.   I’ll lose stuff, but nothing crucial

• Nick talks to Marvella at the Historical Society: History of the island, the four demons who started it all, intro Marvella and Cecily, the book Nick takes to Hell . . .

Just cut this back.

 

And now I must get the garbage out before it starts to rain.  Also the dogs are full of cheeseburger and must be emptied.  One damn thing after another.

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I Can’t Quit This

Executioner from Arthur Rackam’s 1007 illustration for Alice, and my spiritual editor.

August 5, 2019, 1:19
So I got all ready to cut the home invasion scene and chickened out.  There’s stuff in there that I don’t know how to do elsewhere–the first horrified mention of Button, the entrance of Joyce the Cat, Nita taking the fall for Button and beginning their relationship, Frank as an important character–plus without this I have pages of Talk.  I like Talk.  I’ll spend my entire story just doing Talk if nobody stops me, but Talk Kills Story, so I need action, bodies in motion, Aristotle insists on it, so . . . 

Damn.  I know Faulkner said to kill your darlings, but have you read Faulkner?  Darlings all over the place.  

So today, I find something else to cut in that damn first act, so I can do the second act tomorrow.  Think of this as a live blog of the Reduction of Act One.  Not that that’s not what the whole blog has been about for weeks.  Argh.  But first I have to eat lunch and take the dogs for their Carl Moment. (Carl is the neighbor who lives two doors down who has a darling Yorkie named Jackson and who gives them cookies and pats and tells them they’re Good Dogs.  It’s the high point of their day.). But then, we’re cutting Act One. BRB.

6:42: Stuff happened.  Phone calls.  Dogs to walk.  Thinking to do.  So far, no cuts at all.  

The thing is, I do believe word counts matter.  The first act has to be the longest, but there’s so much set-up in a first act that there tend to be boring parts, “stuff the reader has to know” that she doesn’t want to know because she wants to get back to the juice of the story.  I think the home invasion thing is important, but it keeps Nita and Nick apart longer and that’s bad for the story.  I need to set the scene of the town, but just Nick looking at the town is not action and not interesting.  He learns crucial stuff at the Historical Society but “this is the history of the town” is not riveting.  I need the “good parts version” of this act, not the parts people skip.

I’m cogitating.  And eating stir fry.  And running out of Diet Coke, so that’s a crisis right there.

12:46 AM 
The glorious thing about. being self-employed is that I can sleep as late as. Iwat (except om Thursdays), so I’m now in my favorite work time: no phone calls, no deliveries, no chance of wandering off with the dogs.  It’s dark, everybody else is asleep, and the bears are wandering around outside looking for trash.  Also I’ve zeroed in on the place to cut.

Sequence One was the intro stuff.  5000 words (rounded off)
Sequence Two is the sequence where they meet I’m the bar.  6000 words. 
Sequence Three is the aftermath with minions including the home invasion: 5400 words.
Sequence Four is the breakfast scene and stabbing: 5300 words.
Sequence Five is the complications stuff where they’re apart: 8300 words.
Sequence Six is the crisis scene: Nick goes to Hell and Nita finds the head in the box: 4700 words
Sequence Seven is the big climax on Demon Head: 3500 words.

Since I want the sequences to get shorter, there’s a big clue to where to cut: That Sequence Five which is all over the place and doesn’t have Nick and Nita together.  I knock 3000 words out of there, the rest of that act falls right into line, or close enough I’ll call it in line.  

Plus it’s all that “the reader should know this” stuff:

• The Mayor threatens Nick.
• The Captain interrogates Button.
• Nick asks Vinnie about Nita and her family.
• The Captain interrogates Nita.
• Nita and Button confer.
• Nick walks through Deville, sees the Municipal Building
• Nita and Button talk to Jason and Lily.
• Nita interrogates Vinnie.
• Nick talks to Marvella at the Historical Society

Yeah, I got bored just writing that list.
I  like the Mayor threatening Nick, but the Captain and Button can go.  Same with Nick interrogating Vinnie, I can cut that way  back; I think the only. thing I need there is that Mr. Crome is a necromancer and Nick tells Vinnie to tell Nita he’ll take her to lunch.  The Captain and Nita probably has to be in there, but I can cut that back.  Nita and Button definitely,  but cut that back and combine it with the Lily/Jason stuff; I need Lily introduced here, but not that much.  Nita and Vinnie can be cut way back.    So I think can Nick and Marvella.  So:

• The Mayor threatens Nick.
• Nick tells Vinnie to ask Nita to lunch (cut back).
• The Captain interrogates Nita (cut back).
• Nita and Button confer, Jason and Lily interrupt.
• Nick walks through Deville (cut back), sees the Municipal Building
• Nita interrogates Vinnie (cut back).
• Nick talks to Marvella at the Historical Society (cut back)

I’m not losing anything I love there, it’s just talk about stuff the reader needs to know but doesn’t want to know, so it can go.  I can do that.  I don’t know if I can cut 3000 words which is 12 to 15 pages, but I can give it the old college try.  I’m gonna need another Diet Coke, though.  Fuel for thought.  Maybe a pretzel.   The basics.

 

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August is Happiness Happens Month

Which is great because it means I have a happiness post.  You’re supposed to celebrate what makes you happy.  This would be a good place to do that.  Happy up, Arghers.

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Cherry Saturday, August 3, 2019

August is Romance Awareness Month which is supposedly about being more romantically aware of your partner but of course for me is about romance writing and being aware of what the hell I’m doing so I get it right on the page.  In the spirit of the month, however, and to inspire me on this damn book, what’s the most romantic thing anybody ever did for you?  Yeah, that thing.  Tell us about it.

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This is a Good Book Thursday, August 1, 2019

Frazzled here.  I should just slow down and read a good book.

And recommendations?

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Working Wednesday

I’m chopping veggies and diagramming scene sequences so I can chop Nita. Also shaving Veronica and scrubbing floors.  Thinking seriously about making chocolate chip cookies.  

Also working on a new Krissie project (remember the Pig?  The bat case?  The Krissie Bag?): she has this kind of cart thingy that uses to walk around stores since her knees are shot, and while it’s a lovely blue, it’s plain, and she wants fancy.  We discussed options–make it look like a little kid’s bike with streamers and a pink basket, turn it into a unicorn, make it a circus wagon– but in the end we went with Gypsy Caravan.  The problem is, it’s all tubes, no flat surfaces except for the seat, and it has to fold up, so it’s going to take some cogitation.    Right now I’m looking at how the bones of the wood caravans are often painted in contrast to the flat panels, and the use of painted flowers.  I’ve ordered some light blue pin striping tape to start with, and I see some crocheted Irish roses in my future along with double stick tape.  But I must think about this first.  It took me weeks to do the Pig, if you remember.  The Pig is retired now; it was starting to fall apart.  I believe the bats are still in circulation.

So what are you up to?

ETA: Posts referenced above:

Pig Posts: https://arghink.com/2009/02/fix-the-p...

Bat Post with picture of Krissie Bag: https://arghink.com/2010/05/bat-country/

Krissie Bag Post: https://arghink.com/2010/05/happy-bir...

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Happiness is (Define It Yourself)

I was sitting here trying to come up with a  happiness tag and realized you probably. knew all the things that made me happy by now.  So it’s your turn.  How do you define happiness?  (This week I was happy because I didn’t have to define happiness.)

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