I hateses this book! Hateses!

[jpskewedthrone]

OK, so I'm slowly edging out of the "hate the entire book" phase, because of course I am persisting and chanting "It's only a rough draft, it's only a rough draft!" but it still seems to be taking forever. However, I'm keeping to schedule. I'm trying for the same schedule I had over the summer, even though I have actual work (teaching) to do now: one chapter a week. This required me to write on the weekend this week, which I expect to happen in the future. But after a marathon day of writing (12 pages!) today, I managed to finish it. It's longer than I expected, which makes me wonder about whether this book is actually going to be 100,000 words or not. I have a feeling the first draft will be . . . over. By alot. But then I can focus on cutting it down.

And I think I'll need to do that. Unlike book 2, which seemed to magically pop out of my head more or less in one solid piece, with very little rewriting necessary, this one will take some heavy work after it's finished. The problem is that the motivations and action in book 2 were extremely clear and obvious and linear. That's not true here. In fact, I'm still figuring out motivations, which is the problem. There are things I already know I have to change in the beginning, and I know that I haven't smoothed out a bunch of the plot ideas, and I can feel that the current stuff (including this chapter) will also require smoothing out. I'm finding all these things that require "clues" or at least lead-ins earlier in the novel, so I'll have to carefully place all of those. I just haven't figured out all the complexity behind the emotions involved in this one.

But in good news *grin* I feel that I've turned into the steep rollercoaster climb to the top. In fact, I feel that I'm nearing the top and I'll be doing the screaming, hurdling down the other side thing soon. That would be good. I need the high.

In other news, have you entered the contest yet? Why not?

Also, I've been told by my agent that there will be a review of Cracked Throne in Publisher's Weekly tomorrow. I'm hoping for a good review. No need for stars or anything, just some good words. As soon as I know what they said, I'll post it here. Unless it's really bad.

Anyway, here's the wordage:

74,475 / 100,000 (74.5%)

Vacant Throne

PS--Ok, the houses in my new city use long-legged birds for symbols, such as the heron, the crane, the egret, etc. Anyone know of any others? Is the cormorant such a bird? I need 8 houses total and so far that's all I've come up with. The online thesaurus isn't helpful.

Comments

Birds

[(Anonymous)]

How about an ostrich?

Re: Birds

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, an ostrich does indeed fit the idea of long-legged birds, but I guess I should throw in "marshland" as part of the description.

Although a house with an ostrich as the symbol would be unforgettable. Hmm . . .

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Is the cormorant such a bird?
Not any of the ones we have around here.

Stork, flamingo, Ibis, crane, rail, sandpiper, oystercatcher, stilt, godwit, curlew, snipe,. They tend to be shore birds. Reference book, "A Guide to Field Identification Birds of North America".

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Ooo! The ibis! I totally forgot about them! They're on the list. Also the snipe. That one's good too. Flamingo (which was suggested by my partner) brings in too much of a "southern" flavor I think. Stork is a maybe. Sandpiper's higher on the list. I do like the stilt. As for the others . . . I'm not sure the reader would recognize them. Although I do say the houses use such birds as symbols, so the assumption would be that that's what they are. (Ooo! I can educate as well as entertain! The teacher's dream!)

Thanks for all the great suggestions! So what is a cormorant then anyway?

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

It's a black greasy looking (odd shiny feathers) salt water fisher kind of bird. They like to perch on floating logs and pylons and they dive into Puget Sound for food. They are smaller than seagulls.
When they come back up after several dives they'll perch on a log and hold their wings out away from their bodies so their feathers will dry. I like them. :-)

I'm glad to help. You might want to double check on some of the birds, like crane and heron, to make sure they aren't the same bird (because I think they are), yanno? Now you've got names so you can look them up to make sure and to see what they look like. And herons are BIG. One landed in the back garden neighbour's back lawn a year or so ago. BIG.

The characters will know what the birds represent even if the reader must be told.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Found a cormorant!
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/chf/pub/ifwis/birds/double-crested-comorant.html

I've heard that they're used for fishing, and have rings put around their necks so they don't swallow the fish, but I've never seen one.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

I never heard of avocets before...

"The avocets and stilts make up a small family, with only a few species worldwide. All are slim birds with long necks, thin bills, very long legs, and striking patterns."

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about the avocets as well. And since I intend to use the stilts (and still have one house left to name) . . .

The striking patterns will help with the banners as well. Off to do more research!

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

I just searched for "wading birds."

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . yes, a cormorant is not what I want. The legs aren't long enough. Although I understand why I know that as being a bird. You can't live in Puget Sound for 7 years (well, I lived on an island in the Puget Sound, not in the sound itself) and not pick up a few new words.

That is a cool, interesting, possibly-to-be-used-in-a-future-book fact about them though.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Provided it's accurate...I've only heard that.

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Yep! That's a cormorant.

I thought it was pelicans that were used for fishing and had rings put around their necks so they couldn't swallow the fish. I'm probably wrong though.

[authorm.livejournal.com]

I posted for your contest. :)

M

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Did you email? I checked and it's not there yet, but someone else emailed me and it took almost 4 hours to show up so . . .

Thanks for entering!