More good news
9 January 2022 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeUnexpectedly, my brother -- who had failed to reply to any of the instalments of the Erik/Christine chapters I'd sent him, or to the whole section when I sent it as a completed text -- felt compelled to telephone me as soon as he had finished reading Raoul and the "Requin", which I posted to him in faint hopes on Friday, in order to tell me that it was absolutely gripping and he couldn't put it down.
So apparently my impression that this section was slow-moving, full of info-dump and tedious was utterly wide of the mark, since both readers loved it! The first one said she thought it was the best part so far, and that clearly I'd 'got into my stride' by the time I reached that section... which is ironic, considering how painfully unrewarding and laborious I found it and how many months it took to write:
My brother particularly commented on how distinctive and alive all the different characters felt, despite the fact that it was such a large cast -- and how all their names sounded 'French' and yet were pronounceable :p
And he really appreciated the development of the Raoul/Lancard relationship, which is one bit I did like myself.
Of course, this does mean that (a) my judgement of my own work is clearly unreliable and (b) this section doesn't after all provide handy scope for cutting to reduce the overall length...
At the moment I'm slightly worried by the question of how many winters the d'Artois expedition spends on the ice, since I've written that the alarm was raised in Paris "at the onset of that second winter", but have already implied the existence of two earlier winter periods, one at the start of the expedition which was scheduled and jolly and one the following year which was pretty grim, and which sparked a desperate attempt to send out a sledging expedition the next spring. I don't really want to put them through *three* winters before Raoul turns up, which seems a bit extreme and repetitive; on the other hand Leroux does say that no news of the d'Artois expedition had been heard for three years (l'expédition du d'Artois, dont on n'avait pas de nouvelles depuis trois ans)
Original musings on the timeline: https://igenlode.dreamwidth.org/136587.html
I have *almost* (which probably means another three days to a week) finished Chapter 13 in "An Outsider and a Foreigner"; the Phantom has snatched Christine and vanished, and I've just hit the key section where Raoul needs to rush off and rescue her but is held back by having a pregnant wife in tow, and Hertha has to make the choice to tell him to "leave me and go" ;-p
Which from her point of view and for all she knows at this moment, is effectively setting him free to be with Christine if he wants to; she is not only sending him into danger, but she believes that either way she is going to lose her husband as a result...
After that I think we skip directly to the scene where everyone is reunited in the Hôtel Chagny, with the usual flashback musings to explain how they came to be there. Although it dawns on me that Hertha probably ought to have witnessed the formation of the 'mob' with Meg Giry to lead them, since she is still present after Raoul dashes off under Madame Giry's guidance. I don't really want to cover that material, though; from her point of view the climax of the drama is 'have I just destroyed my marriage?' rather than 'oh no, the poor Phantom is in danger' :-P
So apparently my impression that this section was slow-moving, full of info-dump and tedious was utterly wide of the mark, since both readers loved it! The first one said she thought it was the best part so far, and that clearly I'd 'got into my stride' by the time I reached that section... which is ironic, considering how painfully unrewarding and laborious I found it and how many months it took to write:
My brother particularly commented on how distinctive and alive all the different characters felt, despite the fact that it was such a large cast -- and how all their names sounded 'French' and yet were pronounceable :p
And he really appreciated the development of the Raoul/Lancard relationship, which is one bit I did like myself.
Of course, this does mean that (a) my judgement of my own work is clearly unreliable and (b) this section doesn't after all provide handy scope for cutting to reduce the overall length...
At the moment I'm slightly worried by the question of how many winters the d'Artois expedition spends on the ice, since I've written that the alarm was raised in Paris "at the onset of that second winter", but have already implied the existence of two earlier winter periods, one at the start of the expedition which was scheduled and jolly and one the following year which was pretty grim, and which sparked a desperate attempt to send out a sledging expedition the next spring. I don't really want to put them through *three* winters before Raoul turns up, which seems a bit extreme and repetitive; on the other hand Leroux does say that no news of the d'Artois expedition had been heard for three years (l'expédition du d'Artois, dont on n'avait pas de nouvelles depuis trois ans)
Original musings on the timeline: https://igenlode.dreamwidth.org/136587.html
I have *almost* (which probably means another three days to a week) finished Chapter 13 in "An Outsider and a Foreigner"; the Phantom has snatched Christine and vanished, and I've just hit the key section where Raoul needs to rush off and rescue her but is held back by having a pregnant wife in tow, and Hertha has to make the choice to tell him to "leave me and go" ;-p
Which from her point of view and for all she knows at this moment, is effectively setting him free to be with Christine if he wants to; she is not only sending him into danger, but she believes that either way she is going to lose her husband as a result...
After that I think we skip directly to the scene where everyone is reunited in the Hôtel Chagny, with the usual flashback musings to explain how they came to be there. Although it dawns on me that Hertha probably ought to have witnessed the formation of the 'mob' with Meg Giry to lead them, since she is still present after Raoul dashes off under Madame Giry's guidance. I don't really want to cover that material, though; from her point of view the climax of the drama is 'have I just destroyed my marriage?' rather than 'oh no, the poor Phantom is in danger' :-P
