So you filled your hands

Ohmygod.

So, for the longest time I had Cate Blanchett in my head for Gruoch. She has the elegance, the cruelty, the poise, the ferocity — she's it. I made a conscious choice not to think of her in this latest incarnation of The Falling Woman.

So now what happens?

( Holy shit. )

Holy shit.

I was gearing up to make an intelligent post about visual language and how it's inspiring Hecatia and The Falling Woman, but then I saw a free e-book called Headless Males Make Great Lovers And Other Unusual Natural Histories, and I just sort of lost it.

So, it's been a few days. And it's funny, because I really am feeling that old "...wait, this is over? I have free time? That's not right." I've actually been doing a little writing each day in December already, though not very much. I have about 750 words that I'm hoping to expand tonight, and I really don't want to lose the November momentum. I've got a few unfinished paper mache projects sitting around my apartment, and I'm not willing to have this story languish like they are. (Granted, this is not National Paper Mache Project Month, so there's a bit of a differential there, but that's beside the point.) My hope is really to have this draft onto paper by Christmas. I have so many other projects to work on, including the post-apocalyptic Americana short story collection and the Prometheus retellings, not to mention the secondary characters from The Falling Woman itself that need short stories.

Speaking of which, holy wow, I am so enthralled with Gabourey Sidibe. And how unbelievably gorgeous is she? I think she's turned into my model for Imber's mom. Doesn't she strike you as a potential ( spoiler )? (The picture comes from this article. I haven't seen Precious yet, but I very much hope she proves the writer wrong. Seriously, she's so freaking charming and happy!)

But mostly DELIGHTED and VICTORIOUS! Even if this story is far from over yet.



Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading and commenting! I am a vain creature, and appreciate both the feedback and the cheerleading more than I can say.

This looks exactly like something that would happen in Hecatia.

Oh dear. I am definitely feeling that 1 AM bedtime from last night. I'm contemplating leaving work early... to sleep and not feel like death, not to write.

When you're writing it, the story follows you wherever you go, doesn't it? Everything is relevant. For example: I love loldogs. And then I found this on IHasAHotDog:


see more dog and puppy pictures

Silly picture, and the dog's hair is too long and nice, but look at that face. There's something about the shape of that face, the long snout and the bump behind the nose and the lack of jowls so you can always see teeth that makes me associate sighthounds with Lady Macbeth. (More evidence.)

Well, midnight approaches and I'm on track to spend the beginning of NaNo sick as a dog. I slept from 2 to 6, so I guess at least I'll have my word count up by the time I wake up tomorrow. I have hot chocolate, I have tea, and best of all, thanks to this collection of word count meters, I've found one that I really like, since Zokutou seems to have bitten the dust.

This is likely to be my last public post for a while. If I've missed anyone who would like to read The Falling Woman as it's spit out, please comment or fill out the poll below. Good luck and happy writing, everybody!

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.)

Holy crap, my story works.

I read this fantastic blog post about story structure while I was at work today. It has a breakdown of 20 steps that are the classic bones of any huge story. I scribbled notes in the margins of a printout while riding the train home, and then retreated to my room with a notebook rather than eating dinner.

I now have in hand five and change pages of comprehensive outline, plus several huge, important, incredible discoveries about the characters. Not only that, but the story really, really works. It's not just "Insert quest here!" anymore. (I mean, there is still a lot of that, but not on the big picture level. Which is thrilling!)

So, I cannot recommend reading that link enough. I also cannot recommend food enough. Very quick dinner, here I come. (My writing hand will appreciate it too!)

Oh wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. I remembered that in high school we had watched a very weird animated version of Macbeth; the motions of Lady M during her "Unsex me here" speech have been in my mind for a long time. Trust YouTube to have it — infinite thanks, ShakespeareAnimated, who also has these BBC productions of Hamlet, The Tempest, Julius Caeser, The Winter's Tale and others.

It's amazing. I think, when Duncan's murder is revealed, they've got one guy racing through the halls naked and waving a sword? Absolute genius. Oh, Scottish play!

( That crowned babe will haunt me far longer than the Weird Sisters. )