I don’t know what you think about Nanowrimo but I find it useful.
(Clarification: I don’t know who you are in the first place, dear reader. So don’t let my lack of knowledge of your preferences around periodic writing programs play too much of a part in your view of my books or me as a person. Unless it’s me reading this. Then the first sentence of this post is a lie.)
There’s something about a nicely rising graph with an analysis of the speed at which you write, the times at which you write and an expected completion date for a nice sharp little 50k novel that makes me want to beat the graph, speed up my word count (27 words a minute at the moment) and show that completion date why it is so wrong about when I’ll type those terminal words ‘The End’ after the final chapter of my story makes its way from mind to page.
This Nanowrimo I’m writing on is a side work to the Tower.
The problem with the Tower is it is awfully clever (in my opinion), with lots of time shifts, character shifts, non linear story telling and big ideas. The key word there is ‘awfully’. At times it’s about as much fun to read as putting your brain in a blender and trying to do advanced trigonometry.
I don’t actually know what trigonometry is. I’m assuming advanced anything is difficult (with the possible exception of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons).
This side story allows me to explain certain concepts, some of the background to the characters in the Tower, and the general issues raised therein; whilst still being readable and forming a framework if someone is nuts enough to move on to read the Tower.
It’s a gateway novel. Like Lego? You’ll love structural engineering!
I’m 9k in at day 3, with another 1600 to write today for that sweet, sweet 10k badge. The main character will need a little differentiation work, he’s a bit of a stereotypical protagonist of one of these novels at the moment. The jaded near-agent with a past that means he’s not well liked by those around him and no clear internal life or links to anyone he doesn’t work with. I think he needs a bit more character, not having made it as an agent he’ll have had to find some other things to do with his time than running around saving the world.
He was also Stanley’s apprentice and dislikes the man with a passion. Stanley seems to have that effect on people.
The side characters include Dr. Marcus from the witch duology where he runs around on a bike and occasionally needs rescuing from the drowned Fae of Ely. He’s a bit more together now, almost in his pomp. And a couple of new mains, Bains who’s the tetchy Chief Provost (effectively chief of police) of the Institute, set amidst the ruins of old Cambridge with its covered causeways leading up to the Castle and down to newly recolonised London; and Dana, the honorary overseer of the Institute, a former agent who suffered crippling injuries in the line of duty (I’m thinking the evacuation of Out-Paris from Belle) and who also knows old Stanley a little too well to want to do all that much towards supporting any entity he works for.
It seems that no one likes Stanley. Bar Johnson. He’s a terrible judge of character, or maybe he just sees a little more deeply to who someone could have been in a different version of the world.
As Dana says, no one who survived the Catastrophe can claim an entirely clear conscience. Survival and compromise walk hand in hand in the Ice Age in Scarlet universe.
Ice Age in Scarlet 