Clarion Write-a-thon – the third 5000 – RESEARCH IS KEY APPARENTLY WHO KNEW
I keep lurching between thinking that I shouldn’t be writing at all right now, or that maybe I should have given myself a more hardcore writing challenge. My big word for the week was ‘research’. The book that I’m writing right now, which may or may not be called Flavia Wednesday, and I first got the spark of the idea for it around January this year.
Normally I have so many novel projects backed up that it takes at least 2-4 years from the initial spark to actually getting to write the dratted thing, and I loved the idea of writing something while it was still “fresh.” But of course, freshness isn’t everything, and those 2-4 years often allow for a lot of quiet background thinking, character association, and casual research. Which I haven’t done.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, this book is rapidly linking up to all these other historical/steampunk YA plots in my head, forming a universe of other novels, and that makes the worldbuilding all the more essential. Because it’s not actually Victoriana set in OUR history, that would be far too easy. It’s an amalgam of two completely different time periods and storytelling traditions, and there’s building a magic system from scratch and, and, and – is it any wonder that I’m finding it tricky to get my characters out of the dungeon I locked them up in last week?
They might have to sit down there for a while as I figure out all the complicated things.
15209 / 30000 words. 51% done!
Halfway is halfway, and at the three week mark that’s exactly where I should be. But I might have to step up the action if I want to hit my REAL goal for this write-a-thon, which is to get the momentum of the novel flying. The lack of ground under my feet could be what’s slowing me down…
A sample of this week’s writing:
Trapped, then. Flavia tasted the tea. This, at least, was good, though it was milkier than she liked. “The whole household travels that way?’ she asked finally. “But how on earth does Lady Carolinge stand it?”
“Mostly she pretends it isn’t happening,” said Perrault with something of a naughty schoolboy look upon his face as he finished his cake and reached for another piece. Mrs Brundage rapped his knuckles, but managed to look kind as she did so. “Then she claims a sick headache and takes to her bed for three days afterwards, just to remind my brother that he shouldn’t put her through it very often.”
“You’ll find none of that anti-witch sentiment in this house,” Mrs Brundage said firmly. “Our mistress, Lady Mortmain, won’t stand for that sort of nonsense.”
Yes, you can tell it’s a real Tansy book because people are drinking tea!
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