Saturday, March 25, 2006

The Whole Brain

Today I made an effort to begin integrating my world-building into F&M. I'd written the rough draft first, then let it cool while I did research and side-writing work on character, setting, and fantasy elements.

I'd thought about drafting the handful of scenes I'd skipped ("not working, don't force it; keep going") in the manuscript first, but I had so many notes on them from having done the side work that it made more sense to start there.

I did have an initial rush of overwhelmed-ness at the enormity of the task, the puzzle-work. I decided to begin by trying to figure out where and how the co-protagonists' traits and back-stories fit into the larger whole, help advance the story, and/or should be ignored as irrelevant.

Basically, I have two sets of writing on this same manuscript--one that is rooted in story as it flowed from my fingertips (more subconscious) and the other as I brainstormed, read, and took notes (more conscious). Integrating them is sort of like doing brain surgery on myself.

But I just poured myself a glass of iced tea, curled up on the futon in the upstairs sitting room, opened both documents, and began with the first reference first and so on.

Spooky News & Links

Technovelgy: "where science meets fiction.""Explore the wide variety of inventions and ideas of science fiction writers--over 975 are available on Technovelgy (that's tek-novel-gee!). Use the Timeline of Science Fiction Invention or the alphabetic Glossary of Science Fiction Technology to see them all, look for the category that interests you, browse by favorite author/book or check Science Fiction in the News and watch sf come to life."

Cheers to BH!