People are always going on about how much work writing is. Oh the agony, oh the slog, blah de blah.
And, yeah, it's rare that you can avoid the slog.
But, dammit, writing is fun! I write because I love it. There are far more highs than there are lows.
My favourite parts are:
- Accidental coolness - when re-reading that paragraph you tossed off in a hurry makes you stop and blink and double-check that you can claim credit for it.
- Plans coming together - all those plot threads dovetailing so neatly you'd think it was deliberate!
- THAT scene - finally reaching the one scene you've been wanting to write for THREE MONTHS now.
- Unreeling the world - by far my favourite part, when you've got one page written and you're galloping through plot and possibility and why and wherefore and you're walking around with a huge grin because wouldn't it be cool to do that! And what if, and EW!, and that could work and then, but, and if, and oh, damn, I love this story!
By which you might guess that I've had a first page 'musesploding' all over the place. Wednesday (which will probably end up being called The Pyramids of London) is occupying every spare thought because I've been having way too much fun working out a world which I'm calling my "Didn't Fall" world. Where the Egyptian Empire didn't fall because its God-Kings were weather-controlling vampires. And the Roman Empire didn't fall because the technical difficulties of fighting weather-controlling vampires led to them harnessing lightning. And Britain is just a bit different after being successively invaded by the Romans, the Vikings, the Egyptians, and something which vaguely resembles the Normans, but is now proudly independent with an airship force to be reckoned with, and coronations are held in the Great Grove dedicated to the Tri-Fold Goddess.
So, uh, yeah. So much to write, so little time...
[I am faithfully working on Voice every morning, though, and making good progress now that I made it past a tricky bit.]
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Much as I am enjoying TSoM right now (and I am, very much so), The Pyramids of London is the book of yours that I was born to read.
ReplyDeleteYou may proceed safe in the assumption of at least one sale :)
Heh - I must admit that I did think of you when it occurred to me that no matter what I ended up doing with the plot, it would be a wonderful world to roleplay in. It's familiar enough that people will recognise all the twists to culture, but different enough to give great scope to madly unexpected convergences of myth and mythos.
ReplyDeleteI already know what I want on the cover (a no doubt completely unsurprising cityscape of London, with two pyramids planted in the middle of it). And an elegant airship being chased by a Da Vinci-ish flying machine. Maybe with an automatum clinging to a rope. My brain is going to melt in the process of writing this damn thing.
It's a murder mystery espionage thingie, btw. Someone is attacking Heliotropus with windstorms, but the main character is more interested in tracking down whoever killed her brother. For the purposes of investigation she is selling herself to a vampire as a regularly scheduled meal (Wednesday).
Since I rarely venture anywhere near alternates of this world, I'm going to pour a kitchen sink worth of worldbuilding into this one. :) Even "The Secret Garden" is getting a play.
Here's a demonstration of the speed of the new world of publishing ;)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12390040-the-pyramids-of-london
That's...kind of insane. And awesome, of course.
ReplyDeleteBTW I think you already poured a kitchen sink worth of worldbuilding into those two middle paragraphs. Glee! I already can't wait.
I want both books - is that greedy?
ReplyDeleteYou can never be too greedy about books. :)
ReplyDeleteThis has actually spurred me to make a big push one the next-to-end draft of "Voice", because I want to work on "Pyramids". And, ah, "Caszandra" which I want to get out by December.
Go! Go! Go!
ReplyDelete(Say, here's a topic for discussion - what's your rate of production? Not just wordcount, but the whole process. How long does it take for you to get from typing 'Chapter 1' to hitting the send button on the Smashwords/Amazon/whatever page? And what stages take the shortest and longest with you?)