Igenlode Wordsmith

I have so, so, so so nearly finished the Swedish story (or the main draft, at any rate). I'm just struggling with the final sentences, which don't seem to fit at well as they were supposed to -- not a good sign, since that's the only ending I've got, and otherwise it just trails away :-(

I really ought to be more excited, but I'm not terribly happy with this whole epilogue, and haven't been all that happy with a lot of the preceding chapters, so I have a nagging feeling that the end of this story doesn't live up to the very promising beginning. And I'm very much in two minds about whether adding in Lancard's sister Gilberte as a new character in the final chapter is a good idea -- the intention was to bring Lancard back for the finale rather than just dropping him (as Kulla has effectively been dropped at the end of the last chapter, after all Christine's rhapsodizing over her), but in fact he has been communicating with Raoul by telegram, appearing alongside him in the parade, etc., and could probably be contrived to do so without the introduction of his sister, who feels a bit extraneous. (We also have Raoul's sister Valentine showing up and receiving characterisation at the very last minute, but that seems more organic somehow. But two previously-unseen characters making onstage appearances at the eleventh hour seems a bit overwhelming to the reader...)

The epilogue is currently seven pages at circa 525 words/page, which means I can afford to omit a page or two if it comes to it. I just don't know.

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And I needn't have worried about pens and fillers -- somebody smashed into me when I was walking home writing the other day and knocked the pen out of my hand, damaging the nib irretrievably on the pavement :-(
That was my 'new' steel pen, so now I'm back on the original one with its previously-damaged nib, and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth investing in that any further at all.

Unbelievably, after my problems with Lancard and Lagarde and sister Clémence, I've now discovered that, having bestowed the name Bajet upon the senior servant at the château de Chagny, I'd already used it for the name of a sailor at the end of plot point four. Since it's well over a year since I wrote that scene (and the line in question was actually an edited interpolation), I can't imagine where my subconscious dragged the name up from.

Rather than try to come up with another random sailor's name, it probably makes more sense to re-use one of the future survivors for this bit-part role (very, very 'bit' -- he just gets yelled at to fetch the surgeon). Of course, at the time when this chapter was written none of them actually existed yet... I've gone for Boudon ('the other big one'), who is the least well characterised and generally gets the least to do.

Having reread the manuscript for "Familiar", I observe that not only does Anna wake up not wearing mittens, but she also blows her nose several times, which would require her to take them off every time she wanted to use the handkerchief. So while I could come up with explanations for where a pair of mittens suddenly appear from (her pockets, Hans) and mention that she puts them on at some point, I really think it's simpler if I simply excise all the three or four various subsequent references where she is wearing them!

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I still haven't started work on the meat of Plot Point 12, despite having written about fifteen hundred words on the chapter (which in consequence is almost certainly going to run too long, unless it comes out very unbalanced indeed). I have, however, finally said goodbye to Lancard — it's literally the last thing I wrote this evening. This chapter was not actually meant to be about Raoul/Lancard angst and misunderstandings :-p

(It dawned on me today that Lancard is basically a younger version of Jussy, acid tongue, class-conscious chip on the shoulder and all. Well, I rather liked Jussy as a character...)

I have been re-reading A Natural History of Dragons in installments, very slowly, not so much because I want to savour the writing, although it enables me to do so, but because I am rather dreading reaching the remembered end of the story -- hindsight makes the whole thing horribly poignant. I keep thinking 'oh no, it's this next bit' and then finding that there are some more 'safe' bits of the story to enjoy before then....( sequel )

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Further news on Lancard: he definitely gets to keep his name after all. We really can't have a whole load of scenes between "Raoul and Roncard", apart from anything else! Instead Lagarde (after a prolonged study of a handy Google-scanned book of French surnames beginning with L, their meanings and origins) will become "Laporte", which is a similarly slightly-lower-class-sounding name with close enough connotations (his ancestors lived by the gate instead of guarding it :-p)
I think Lancard and Laporte can decently appear on board the same ship without causing confusion, just as Reux and Raoul can: we have lost the repeated "ard" towards the end of both, and P and C are more distinct than G and C...

Still not sure what I'm going to do with Lancard (currently still functioning as translator; I've managed to put myself in a situation where only one person is fluent in all the languages spoken by all the people in the scene, and it isn't the viewpoint character!) in the next part of the story. Presumably he will appear in the tickertape parade at the end?

I've finished plot point nine :-D (cue insane laughter)

I don't know about polishing it off in three thousand words; I think it's been another 18 pages so far, which is more like five and a half thousand, and we're not actually beyond the "found and rescued" part, which still leaves the "bit hazy" material to cover. In fact we're not even quite on board the seal-hunter yet, since I had the bright idea of cutting short the business of Lancard falling in while transferring between boats by having the Résurgence simply get run down by the oncoming ship :-p

(The irony of that, of course, is that it makes all the foreshadowing about his back injury pretty much unnecessary...)

Still, it seems so strange to be making actual progress through the plot again, instead of frantically floundering about for month after month...

After very laboriously finishing plot point five — in which the Phantom is wildly inconsistent in his reactions to the mention of Raoul and Christine is as well — it has become all too apparent that this really doesn't sit very well with the end of the previous chapter.( Read more... )

Finally lurching towards the big dénouement where Erik gets Christine's address and goes off in chase of her, after a lot of issues with the chapter. ( Raoul's naval rank )

( The letter and Erik's escape )

( Reusing Lancard )