Rhian Crockett

Thankfully, my hand is better today. Not a clue what I did to it, but it doesn't seem to have been permanent.

I did take ages to get today's wordcount, but oh well. Did you know that prophecies are an excellent way to pad it out?

Trains, trains, trains. Yawwwn. Got writing done before the train journey, thankfully. Not looking forward to writing tomorrow on my netbook.

SleeeeeeezzzzzzzzZZzzzzzzzzz...

Happily, Wednesdays are my day off, so I got my writing done in good time. I don't have much to say about it, though, so I shall go off and read now.

Today's writing went quite well, thankfully, and was easy enough to get done. Partly because Ragnelle and Guinevere both had points they wanted to make about the society they live in. My Camelot was looking a bit idyllic: they just cut it down to size, between them.

In case anyone was wondering, I elected to read Garth Nix's Mister Monday. Which I have already finished. And I'm partway through Grim Tuesday. So I really was in the right mood for those.

In fact, I think I'll go read some more, now.

Day thirteen was... day thirteen. I backed up my novel, and eked out my wordcount during another interminable train journey. I'm currently developing the character of the victim's mother, and she is surprising me a little -- she embodies a kind of commentary about the kind of king Arthur is.

Too bad this chapter is badly overwritten and probably needs chucking, when I edit.

In lieu of more interesting content, here, an article I liked on inclusionary writing.

I've procrastinated far too much today, but I have at last got today's count. Have seriously been neglecting my studies, though, so now I shall get on with those -- once I get dressed. Oops.

(And perhaps I should tidy my room. *eyes the chaos of papers and books*)

Got my writing done early, today! This because I am going to go out and do outrageous things, like talk to people in the real world.

At the moment, I'm still intrigued, though, by what my characters have been setting up behind my back. First Gaheris was all worried over some issues with Gawain, and then Cai stepped out and mirrored him, with his issues with Arthur. I didn't expect that.

Gawain remains clueless, though; it's only Gaheris and Bedwyr that realise there's parallels. Oh, characters.

(Still no sign of a title. I wish it was something you could go out and hunt: I wish that somewhere there was a big cave, called, say, "The Cave of Prospective Titles", and you could go there with a butterfly net and catch one, and it would know best about what your work should be titled, and you could accept its professional judgement.)

Today was mostly a day off, since I haven't been well, but I have (eventually) got stuff written. And I've finally shut Ragnelle up: I forgot how chatty she is. Good for word count, but most of it will have to hit the cutting room floor. I'm pleased that I snuck in a reference to Bisclaveret, a Breton lay that I'm thinking of doing a proper (and possibly diversified) retelling of.

In the course of messing around on the Kindle store today, I found some ebooks relevant to my interests in retelling fairytales. Or to some people's interests, anyway. There's various different collections, and they all seem to be erotica, but if that interests you, here are the two most relevant: Like a Queen: Lesbian Fairytales and Like a Prince: Gay Fairytales.

I haven't read them, so I can't speak for the quality of them, but I'm sure someone among you would be interested...

Today I am not so grumpy, you may or may not be glad to know. The writing came relatively smoothly today, though I'm irritated that a part I know I will have to cut most of, if not all, is turning out to have a lot of well-written parts in it. Argh.

Suddenly, though, 50,000 words is starting to seem short. I have a problem with longer pieces, generally: I'm so used to writing microfiction that I have hell trying to write anything long. I seem to have figured something out, this time, though. I hope so.

I was worried about disliking Guinevere, but a) she is a nicer person than I'd dare hope, and b) she's funny. Yay!

I have a long train journey in my future. I will have my laptop with me, so I might write, but I do prefer to read, on trains. Hmmm...

In the interests of being useful, here is an article about six (yoga) stretches you can do at your desk. Useful to know -- will help unkink your body, and give you a few minutes break from staring at the screen.

Also, I have discovered there's a pose called King Arthur's pose. Ha.

Today, I procrastinated a lot, did a lot of laundry (how do I wear so much?!), and eventually eked out the required word count... most of which will be cut in editing. I'm still feeling my way into the story, so I'm not unduly worried, and all of this is useful for that.

I've learnt a lot about Cai and Bedwyr, over the last few days. So far, it's been the minor characters that interest me most, which is interesting, given that Gawain is normally my main focus. It's probably a good sign that I love my subplots this much, in any case, and it's all relevant going forward into the potential other books (if I write the whole series, there will be five of them).

I always find myself wondering how much to tell people. Like the ultimate gossip, I know who all my characters are dating, but my POV character doesn't. If I don't tell you, you might figure it out for yourself, and that's awfully fun. On the other hand, you might not, and then you wouldn't know that there's an epic love affair going on behind the scenes. It reminds me of Rowling's pronouncement that Dumbledore was gay -- I didn't hallucinate that, right? -- I know who my characters are doing, but is it fair to give word of God on something that isn't actually included in the text?

For example, since I've mentioned it already, in a way: I'm pretty sure Gaheris is asexual. He just is, and he won't say so at any point in the text. I don't think he's even aware of the concept, he just knows he doesn't want a wife or any kind of lover. He's got more important things to do. As a reader myself, though, I don't really want the author stepping in and saying things are this way or that way: I have my own understanding of the characters. If I were reading it, maybe I'd desperately want to see Gaheris kidnap his brother's wife and marry her, or something. Or maybe I'd be pissed about the lack of the traditional wife and quest for him -- Enide, and his quest to prove himself a valuable knight even as a married man -- and want to write her in myself. In any case, I'd have my own ideas.

I think I've answered my own question, haven't I?

(But as a writer, I want to tell you!)