season of rains

WWJD?

One of my main goals for the current revision of SoR is to give my protagonist, Jhayni, more agency. In previous versions, bad things just happened to her. She tumbled willy-nilly from bad to worse. Her reactions were instinctive, not volitional. This time around, I want Jhayni to dig her heels in and make choices and deal with the consequences. Instead of sitting around waiting for the Bad Guys to come get her, I want her to go breach their stronghold for what she wants. Instead of spending most of Part One refusing to acknowledge the magical nature of her artifact, I want her to use it–with terrible results. I want her to do things, and make mistakes, and live with them.

I need to import the go-getter Jhayni from Part Two (or at least her younger self :D) into Part One. Which means all of the scenes I have left to revise need massive restructuring. I’m at a point in the story where Jhayni is without work, without a home, has been betrayed by a friend, and is being hunted by two different groups of Baddies. In the previous version, she goes hides in the library until someone finds her and drags her off to the palace.

My improved Jhayni wouldn’t do anything so lame.

So, What Would Jhayni Do?

I’m off to ponder that some more.

Sir I. helps me revise

What are you doing, Mommy?

Writing my book.

What chapter are you on?

Mm, eight, I think.

*reading over my shoulder* Something brushed against…. a house!

No, not a house.

*rustles paper* What’s this?

It’s a map of my city. PLEASE don’t lose it.

What’s this? And that? And, oh, this says “shops!”

It’s a road called King’s Way. PLEASE be careful.

What’s your books about, Mommy? Is it about six hundred marchers, marching across the sea??

No, it is most definitely NOT about that.

***

Last night, I spent a long time mentally rearranging the remaining scenes in Part One. Today I noticed a set of scene cards I’d tucked into my revision folder the last time I’d worked on SoR (many moons ago). When I flipped through them, I found that I had already done the work of arranging scenes for maximum benefit back then. Doh! This is one reason why I shouldn’t wait so long between iterations!

On the plus side, my handy dandy index cards tell me I have only seven more scenes to go for Part One. Left Brain likes marking progress by scenes so much better than by by page numbers.

wheels and walls

Oh, the things that keep me awake at night. Is it a wall, or a fort? Are there six forts to an isle, or twelve? How many wheels would you pay for a bag of rice or a month’s rent? How many isles does your average Jane (or Jhayni, in this case, heh) earn in a year? And how many stars is a million bucks?

In case you’re completely lost, I’m trying to figure out my world’s money. 😀

Next up in the All-Consuming Pursuit of Worldbuilding Things Trivial: time! Bells or notes? How many days in a week? How many weeks in a month? How many months in a year? And what are they called?!

You never knew revising could be this fun, did you?

recovery and revision

I have been shamefully neglecting this blog. My apologies. What with sickness running rampant through my home, the revision of Season of Rains turning my brain to mush, and my heroic attempts to finish the gargantuan A Suitable Boy in a timely manner, blogging has taken a backseat (or sent to hide in the trunk). I’ll be back later this week with revision woes aplenty, a reading roundup and an offering from Sir I. Maybe even some links.

How are you?