Critically Distant

r-avatarNovels #4 and #5 are both in resting phases, which gives us a chance to circle back to the final volume of the trilogy. It’s been sitting patiently for quite a while, and this seems like a good opportunity to consolidate the feedback from our most recent critiquers. Of course, we want to know our own minds about the text before we try to make sense of what other people said about it, so we’re doing a read-through.

This wasn’t supposed to be a difficult thing. It wasn’t supposed to stir up disagreements.

A perennial challenge for authors is getting an “honest read” of their own stuff. Knowing what’s going to happen, and knowing what’s supposed to be symbolic, gets in the way of appreciating it the way a “real” reader would. That’s one reason it’s important to let work rest. What seems to have happened to Kent, in this instance, is that he failed to put aside his anticipation of certain later events in this book, but exceeded recommended dosages of forgetfulness about how the previous books led up to it. As a result, he raised awkward questions that baffled Jen, and the conversation wasn’t productive. But we pushed through, which is good because otherwise we might not have reached the point where Jen saw what was happening and steered Kent back on course.

Now everything seems to be going much better. There is a bit of a hangover though: Kent feels spooked. It’s a get-back-on-the-horse situation, and that’s what he’s doing, but his confidence isn’t yet fully restored.

Working solo, a writer might wreck a good manuscript trying to fix illusory problems. The chances that two of you will be having the same kind of off day are pretty slim (hopefully!) so you can be confident that anything you agree on is a valid concern.

Silver Maple Turned

  • k-avatarhis “jurisdiction”
  • her flushed face
  • the old woman
  • first choice
  • silver maple

Silver Maple turned her flushed face up to see how Judge Watkins was reacting to her ministrations to his “jurisdiction.” Paying the fine would have been her first choice, but this option wasn’t so bad. The old woman knew all the tricks, literally. Judge Watkins would get off, and so would she.

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“You Really Should Make An Effort”

  • by jenbe sensitive to electrical fields
  • umbilical cord. It included
  • brought them succulent branches
  • once was plowed
  • I predict a lot of insomnia

“You really should make an effort to be sensitive to electrical fields,” my mother once said. “Their feelings are easily hurt.” So I made every effort when a couple of them moved in next door. I did some research into their customs and then prepared a gift basket tied up with a ribbon the exact color of an umbilical cord. It included many homemade goodies. The next day I brought them succulent branches of coca leaves from the field near our street that once was plowed, but has now been taken over by a drug cartel. I predict a lot of insomnia if they eat the leaves.

bonus points for using them in order!

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In Fighting Trim

r-avatarIt’s been quite a while since Rune Skelley was in Writing Mode. For most of this year we’ve been editing various projects, and moving forward we’ll be doing more of the “not actually writing” parts of writing.

The music novel needed a lot of work, which did involve a fair amount of composing new material. It also involved a far greater amount of wrestling with the material we already had: rearranging, streamlining, repurposing, polishing.

The science novel was in much better shape. We’re practically done with the second draft already, and it required very little in the way of new material.

Once we get it wrapped up, we’ll knuckle down and start marketing it. That will require some writing, but not the usual sort. Not the sort we like. We’ll need to concoct the perfect query letter, as well other marketing materials like a synopsis and maybe an author bio.

Then, while the marketing machine chugs away in the background, we’ll move onto the next items on our To Do list, which involve a bit more editing, and then the brainstorming and outlining of the next novel. Again, not much actual writing.

We know that if we stay away from writing for very long at all, the fiction engines cool down and it takes an enormous effort to spool them back up again. That’s where our writing prompts come in.

All those brief and weird things we post on Mondays and Wednesdays are our way of keeping in practice. Sure, they’re often incoherent, but they’re fun and they don’t need to lead to anything bigger. Their only job is to keep the writing parts of our brains from atrophying. When we’re in the middle of writing a novel, they’re not really necessary, although we’ll sometimes use them as a warmup exercise. But in times like this, where there’s no composition of the horizon, they’re life savers.

How do writing prompts work best for you?

The Best Immersion-Therapy

  • k-avatarsex-anxious parents?
  • copulating since 1400
  • projections of the men
  • the demon’s scrotum is clearly in view

The best immersion-therapy for sex-anxious parents? Gotta be Grotto des Grotesques, where the foyer is populated with digital projections of the men who have held the title of Lothario Supremo since the award’s inception in 1239. Very soothing!

Also, in its depths, is a geothermal manifestation of a pair of infernal trysters who’ve been copulating since 1400. Although most of the lovers’ forms are embedded in calcite and sulfurous accretions, the demon’s scrotum is clearly in view.

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Minerva du Mauvais Stood Naked in the Forest

  • by jenwe who shared a womb
  • pointing at a couch
  • the oath of Hippocrates
  • despite the freezing night
  • sly apple-polishing
  • Moon maidens must be strong

Minerva du Mauvais stood naked in the forest despite the freezing night. Moon maidens must be strong, she admonished herself inwardly, and suppressed a shiver. Her brother Devlin paced the clearing, reciting the oath of Hippocrates in its original form — before it was co-opted by the do-gooding healers.

Once finished with the ceremony, Devlin led Minerva inside the black condo they shared. “Wait for me there, darling,” he growled, pointing at a couch. “And none of your sly ‘apple-polishing’ before I return. Save your energies for me.”

“Spoil sport,” Minerva pouted, but she laced her fingers together and twiddled her thumbs to occupy her time while Devlin made a few arcane phone calls.

“We who shared a womb with the devil know all his secrets. Isn’t that right, Mirny?” Devlin said upon his return. Minerva knew that meant the ritual had succeeded and they were now free to celebrate in the most carnal of ways.

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Ya Gotta Start Somewhere

r-avatarNovels #4 and #5 presented us with an unaccustomed obstacle: getting to know a new cast. Over the course of writing and revising the trilogy, we became intimately familiar with the minds and personalities of those characters. We were used to having the characters’ voices be second nature, so the need to readjust took us entirely by surprise.

This is a particular issue for Rune Skelley novels, because we use a very tight third-person viewpoint. Nothing is presented that the POV character doesn’t know, and that character’s worldview informs choices of adjectives and phrasing. The narration adopts the dialect of the viewpoint character.

Beginning the new books was like impersonating a total stranger, at first. It was a dilemma, because to write the scenes we needed to know the characters, and to get to know them we had to spend time with them, i.e., write the scenes. Which brings us to the title of this post. Ya gotta start somewhere.

With Novel #5, the science novel, we started at the beginning, and it wasn’t too long before the new characters became as real to us as the previous cast. Of course, the parts written earliest had the least character voice, but that’s what revision is for. The opening scenes got some retooling to let the POV character, the protagonist, shine through.

Mostly.

There are still a few pockets of “author voice” in the narration. (Kent’s supposed to deal with them tonight, so maybe by the time you read this they’ll be gone.) These mini info-dumps escaped our scrutiny until Jen hit the line edits. They have natural camouflage, because they sound comfortably familiar to us. They sound like Kent.

One of the hardest things for a writer to do is step back far enough to see the work honestly. Beta readers or critiquers are invaluable, but having someone else direct you to the troublesome paragraph is only useful if you can then see the problem, see through its camouflage. Working with a partner helps tremendously, because there’s an extra set of eyes.

“It Might Interest the Patient”

  • k-avatartheatrically emotional
  • accomplish
  • interest
  • circumcision

“It might interest the patient that his becoming theatrically emotional is entirely apropos in an operating theatre, but I would remind him that his state of mind will limit the effects of hypnosis, under which I shall accomplish his circumcision due to his refusal of any other anesthetic.”

bonus points for using them all in one sentence!

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Aarto Hammersmith Was a Tall Norwegian Man

  • by jena pair of filthy feet
  • an enormous cantilevered balcony
  • a bin of oval fish
  • On a sailboat?
  • Free-Range Antelope Chops
  • a tall Norwegian

Aarto Hammersmith was a tall Norwegian man with blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a penchant for sailing inherited from his viking forefathers. Standing on the prow of a ship made Aarto feel like he had discovered an enormous cantilevered balcony over the fjords of his homeland.

When the ship docked in Tokyo harbor it took on several passengers and a bin of oval fish of a type Aarto had never seen before. Intrigued, he tracked down the owner of the bin to ask what the odd oval fish were called. He found her sitting on the deck, dangling a pair of filthy feet through the railing. They were, in fact, her own feet, which was good news to Aarto because she was gorgeous: a beautiful Japanese marine biologist named Hiromi Sakai. They spent the afternoon together talking fish and falling in love. That night at dinner Hiromi, explaining that she never ate the fish she adored, ordered Free-Range Antelope Chops.

Antelope chops? thought Aarto. On a sailboat?

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The Expanding Skelleyverse, er, Universe

r-avatarMost of our time in writing cave lately has been focused on revisions of novels 4 & 5. But when we take Lady Marzipan out for a stroll we have other things to talk about. And lately, those conversations have often revolved around what we might do for novels 6 & 7.

Our ideas are shaping up as sequels to the books we’re currently polishing. It feels great to brainstorm and be able to just make stuff up, after being so intent for the past year or so on the minutiae of the Music Novel and the Science Novel. However, because we’re dealing with sequels, there are definite constraints. As Jen put it, we need to find ways of expanding the story world without changing its fundamental nature.

We come up with lots of cool ideas that would wreck the integrity of the story world. (Kent comes up with them. He can’t seem to help it sometimes.) It’s not really an issue of continuity, it’s more a matter of tone. The sequel should be of the same subgenre as the preceding book, and the stakes should be on a similar scale.

Our story worlds have certain rules, not all of which are demonstrated explicitly in any one book. We like to keep things broad and flexible until events force a firm decision. As we make up a new story and new characters, we periodically paint ourselves into a corner — if we allow X to happen here, then Y would never have been necessary and the main characters wouldn’t have met. Unless we also say Z… This is the process that leads us to the new wrinkles of our story-world physics. We can also just decree new facets, of course, but we like following the characters into trouble and then debugging the scenario. It ensures that all the world building we do is relevant, and it keeps us focused on showing the characters’ stories instead of telling the overall plot. It keeps things grounded and relatable.

This approach also helps keep us stocked up on new concepts, in the form of the ideas that don’t fit into the carefully constructed, shared delusion that is any particular Rune Skelley novel.