So you filled your hands

skygiants, you'll be pleased to know that I just ordered a copy of Flygirl, which I'm planning to use as my reward to myself for reaching my daily wordcount for NaNo.

I've also decided that the proper verb to describe this coming month is "novelectomy."

Last night I literally had to ask oliviacirce to yell at me if I wasn't asleep by midnight. I was going through the outline I came up with and trying to answer some of the questions I'd left blank. Why can't Cethe seek out the witches herself? Why wouldn't Rhona leave town alone? Why does Eudora let Imber leave? Some I solved and some I changed. It feels like connecting the dots in advance, rather than making a Frodo-and-Aragon-in-Moria-style leap when I get there, which is nice.

One thing I'm realizing is for all the world-building texture I've created, I still don't actually know what most of the locations are going to be called. The story starts in Traitorsburgh; the country where the Quiet Sisters hail from is called Hecatia. That's all in terms of specifics. Given how I love Invisible Cities (my setting tag is italo calvino sends his regards), I may wind up giving every town or city people names. Either way, at least one is Helena.

I'm also in the somewhat hilarious position of finding that all my protagonists are women, and two of my main antagonists are male (not men, but certainly not female). Go figure. (I'm probably not using "hilarious" correctly in any way shape or form, but I guess I'm just amused that anyone would find it difficult or objectionable to have a mostly-female cast in a non-romance story. I love these ladies and we haven't even started yet!) ("Amused" may not be the word you're looking for either, but I need to stop with these edits, because, if you'll note the time, I'm really not supposed to be here.)