I sat down to try to write my long-overdue reviews on my fellow-competitors' stories for the Writers Anonymous challenge, having eventually succeeded in downloading them via the library for offline reading despite the worst that FFnet could do, but completely failed to do so -- however I have, instead, finally managed to finish typing up and checking the next chapter of Hertha back against the manuscript. And I have also -- as of September 2^nd -- managed to complete the rewrite on Chapter 24 of Arctic Raoul (after three months of delay) and even got as far as typing up the first scene of Ch25, although I still have another two scenes comprising a total of 3,500 words or so to be typed. (Those chapters are definitely getting longer and longer, and it massively inflates the editing time because the prospect becomes so daunting...)

Chapter 9 — “Well-Beloved Wife”

As I’d anticipated, Raoul returned to follow me out almost before the carriage had been brought round. He looked tired and rather dispirited despite the splendour of his costume, and was disinclined to talk even once we were seated and driving back.

Madame Giry had been less than helpful, I gathered. She’d disclosed what she’d heard or guessed about the Ghost’s origins — a carnival freak and deformed genius who’d gone missing years before, evidently quitting the sideshow life to take up existence outside the law — but she’d said nothing of how she came to be delivering his notes, or of where he could be found, and Raoul was convinced she had to know more than she was telling.

“You know, carnival origins could explain quite a lot.” Despite myself, I found my interest caught. “Not least the use of mesmerism. And the oddly theatrical flair — this isn’t just lunacy, it’s an insane performance.”

This is my attempted entry for the Writers Anonymous Narrative Voice Challenge, which has to be submitted by August 31st (and on FFnet, which means I can't do it after the library closes at 6.30pm).
That means I have to write and type the final section -- Norma's voice -- and then proofread the whole thing tomorrow morning for same-day publication; inevitably there are going to be rough edges, and probably typos remaining.

I think I have at least managed to establish the requisite three different voices for the three characters quite well, and Norma, like Max, is so distinctive that she should be *reasonably* easy to handle. And her section is, by intention, supposed to be short!

(Ouch -- I still also have to come up with a title and summary for the thing before I can submit it...)( Read more... )

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