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Plot bombs I’ve explained before–inspiration that explodes in the plot and drives it forward into new and fascinating territory. What I’ve had this week isn’t a plot bomb. It’s more like that rib-spreader thing that surgeons use when they want to mess around inside someone’s chest cavity. This week’s inspiration–if you can call it that–shoved itself into too small a space in the plot and then pushed it open.
My brain is still sore from that operation. I have pointed out to Book IV repeatedly that we do not need more stuff in less space…we need to move things briskly on, joggety-jog or even gallopy-gallopy, to get to Book V, leaving enough space in Book V to do what must be done there.
Instead, the Plot Daemon shoved a whole new problem in between things already snugly packed, and said “Move ’em over.” Over where, I want to ask PD, but PD has already gone back down into the engine room and slammed the door, and banging on it will do no good. There is no where, she says, looking at the wordage so far and the big “STOP HERE” sign at the end of the road beyond which editorial fiat will start chopping with a free hand.
Talked a bit over with a friend last night, to see if maybe (whimper) a chapter already written should be tossed in favor of the new stuff, and he said no, use both.
The past 2-3 weeks have now produced two intrusive plot chunks…ah, there’s a better metaphor…think of intrusions of magma along the margins of formations, either forcing the other rock aside or melting it and thus changing it from sedimentary to metamorphic. These don’t feel “hot” enough to make that seamless melt-to-metamorphic quality–it’s more like a barely-hot intrusion that’s just breaking what was already there and seemed sound.
Sigh. I could’ve used some nice bright normal plot-bombs…or just straight story-stuff flowing smoothly out of my head and into the file.
Comment by arthur Piantadosi — June 18, 2011 @ 2:03 am
This is Arthur. I understand if you have no time to deal with me, and you can wait as long as you want. I have a suggestion. I will buy your books until my end, I think. Certainly I read everything you produce, except maybe some of your short stories. Here is a suggestion for your publisher, whoever that is. Why do you not write a lot more short stories in the Paksenarrion and Fealty series, that do not directly relate to the story as it is. Like the Dwarves. I am a HUGE Dwarf fan, because of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The fantasy Dwarf IS the Dwarves that Tolkien created. There were no Dwarves as such before he created them. The Elves were more like Conan Doyle’s Flower Fairies than the Tuatha Dé Danann they would become latter. I think you are good enough, even if you think you are not.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 7:40 am
Arthur: I don’t write more short stories because I find them harder to write than books. And right now, dealing with medical problems in the family, I really do not have time to answer all comments, yours or anyone else’s. This is not because I’m angry with you or anyone else–it’s because I do not have the time.
Comment by Kathleen — June 18, 2011 @ 9:40 am
Hope PD and medical problems resolve in a good way.
Comment by Daniel Glover — June 18, 2011 @ 10:30 am
I do hope you will be able to bring some order to the PD chaos.
Comment by Genko — June 18, 2011 @ 10:58 am
Can’t live with PD and can’t live without ’em. Sounds like you have plenty on your plate. Hope things go back to jiggity-jig and gallopy-gallopy pretty soon. I’m wondering whether Mercury is in retrograde or something — almost everyone I know (including myself) seems to have tailfeathers in a bit of a kink, and finding obstacles all over the place. This too shall pass, but it’s kind of a pain in the mean time.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — June 18, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
The parts of our lives that are under our control, or at least our management, actually have a life of their own. Never is this more obvious than when members of a household develop urgent medical issues–and I’m very much including the non-human members of a household. I live with the constant apprehension that, in my household, both humans, both cats, and both rabbits will all develop such issues at once. Hard to keep working while such diversions of resources are going on, but one must keep working. My prayers remain with you and the rest of your household.
Comment by Jonathan Schor — June 18, 2011 @ 3:14 pm
Slow down – take care of first priorities first – health, family, animals. Paks et al can wait. So far as plots and intrusive items are concerned – we all are quite patient so don’t feel you have to come out with a new book every other week.
Comment by Naomi — June 18, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
As the French say ‘Courage’! all the best on the health front… love the blog, love the books, all the best to you and your family and four-leggeds (I rescued some kittens and am currently playing foster mother, therefore thanks to disturbed sleep pattern and rereading the Deed again!)
Comment by din — June 18, 2011 @ 7:20 pm
with the PD, i would put it in if it fleshed out the characters in new ways. if its just something that they do, I would skip it if you wish to continue going from A to Z.
and I’m getting lost with refernces to book iv / book v. I assume your talking oath of fealty as book 1, and kings of the north as book II ? as I consider them as book IV and V – the three paks books being books I, II and III.
still on jury duty ? I’m not sure what the USA laws are, but in Australia (or OZ as we ex-convicts cant spell), we can skip it for a sick family member. u just need to contact them and confirm you dont need to go. Not showing up is bad, since there is a fine involved.
Comment by Linda — June 18, 2011 @ 7:37 pm
Cheery thoughts … your fans are everywhere.
Sitting in a lovely Indian restaurant three weeks ago south of Dublin the couple at the next table asked me where I was from, what I would be doing in Ireland etc. I explained hiking the Wicklow Way … why they asked.
Because a favorite author had lovely things to say about Wicklow
” Oh Anne McCaffrey?” they asked.
Yes, I said, she had led me to so many wonderful things over the years, especially books by other authors, including some who had co-written novels with her that I trusted her about places too.
The woman looked at me and said “Elizabeth Moon?” and I had to admit that that was it exactly.
I love these small world experiences.
Here’s hoping that all will be well.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:20 pm
Wow, Linda! That’s a terrific “small world” experience! Thanks for telling me.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:22 pm
din: My mother’s initials were d i n, and she often signed little sketches and things “din” so for a moment there I got kind of a jolt (she’s been dead almost 21 years.)
On the jury duty thing–I talked to the county clerk on the phone yesterday and was told to come in and talk to the judge on Monday (the day of jury call.) So of course I will.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:22 pm
Naomi: how many kittens are you being foster mother to, and what do they look like?
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:25 pm
Thanks, Jonathan. The con crud from A-Kon seems to be wearing off (yay!) and I’ll be at church tomorrow singing (also yay!) The heat is exhausting (the TV said 105F today–I didn’t dare look at our thermometer to see what we had–but it was brutal. But even so…the book must be written, and there are 90,000 words to go, roughly.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:25 pm
Thanks, Kip. I truly appreciate that.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:26 pm
Yeah, lots of people are having a bad week or two. Around here, the heat is definitely getting to a lot of people (and there are pieces of tires all over the highway, where they’ve blown) as is the danger of more wildfires.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:27 pm
Eventually it’ll work out, Daniel. I need to quit griping and do more working.
Comment by elizabeth — June 18, 2011 @ 8:27 pm
Thanks, Kathleen. Good wishes do help raise the spirits.
Comment by arthur Piantadosi — June 18, 2011 @ 9:01 pm
This is Arthur. I am sorry that my suggestion is a unpractical idea. I was talking with my dad about you, and I mentioned the fact that you went on a trip. He suggested that that why you had not responded to my apology and good wishes. I am glad he was right. Take all the time you like, and be well. My dad has hurt himself multiple times, and is retiring after almost 40 years in the movie industry. And I will be going back to College with him! He never completed his College education, though he was, and is, very smart.
Comment by Naomi — June 19, 2011 @ 9:22 am
ck – not easy to tell who is who, the little girl has a few white haris close to her tail, the two boys are harder to tell apart! still have ‘stripe markings’ though, they are adorable! first week was hard, they were three weeks old when I found them, feeds every three hours, not much sleep there! Thanks for asking…
Comment by Naomi — June 19, 2011 @ 9:23 am
Forgot to add that my female Shih tzu Poppy thinks she’s the kittens’ baby sitter, my two older cats are not impressed at all!
Comment by Daniel Glover — June 19, 2011 @ 11:56 am
Elizabeth,
But if you didn’t complain a little bit you wouldn’t get so much support from your fan base! Venting can be good therapy if properly applied.
Hope you had a good day singing today. I had it off. One more week before we are done for the summer. But we’ll be rehearsing a lot of new material over the summer. Just not standing up in front sweating in our polyester robes.
Comment by sheltiepam — June 19, 2011 @ 4:04 pm
I hope the health issues resolve soon.
Naomi – the most interesting thing that happened with my orphan kittens was the reaction from my oldest when they started walking. She wanted to hit them but she couldn’t. She would start a swat but was unable to follow through. It was as if her body seized up when she tried. We kept one and I knew the day he matured because she did take a poke at him. We took him to the vet that night and after a few days of isolation they got along more or less peacebly.
Comment by Genko — June 20, 2011 @ 12:25 pm
To din — yes IV and V have yet to be titled. I think of Deed, now (rereading yet again), as its own thing, even though its three books (helps that I have the version with all three books in one, even though that makes it harder to hold in bed) and the Gird/Luap books as their own thing, though they are all obviously connected in some ways. This series begins with Oath of Fealty (I), Kings (II), and then Echoes of Betrayal is III. Echoes is in production, and will be out next spring, and IV is the one being worked on now. Book V is supposed to be the conclusion of this series.
It’s hard to keep them all straight in one’s mind, I think, and I can’t imagine how Elizabeth manages it (along with traveling to promote previous books, family, medical stuff, choir, and assorted other activities). But, thankfully, she does.
One question came up for me re-reading Deed. In the last book (Oath of Gold), Paks comes to the stronghold at a time when the Duke has decided not to go south. All three cohorts are settled in to the stronghold and he says they will stay that way for the next few years. Then, in Oath of Fealty some months later as he becomes King, he leaves the north marches to Arcolin, and they are faced with having to take a contract in the south because the land can’t support all three cohorts staying in residence. Kieri’s last instructions tell Arcolin to take a contract in the south. Did they just plan poorly, or didn’t quite know how difficult it would be, or did things change somehow? Obviously, the Duke leaving to become King of Lyonya is a change, but I don’t quite see how it would affect the ability of the Company to stay together at the stronghold in the North Marches.
Comment by Morrygan — June 20, 2011 @ 12:35 pm
Dear Elizabeth, I am very sorry to hear about all the health problems within your family and I hope that everything goes well with operations, recovery and future health.
For some reason while I was reading your posts about the revelations and copy editing, I was possessed of a strong urge to write a post urging you to back up everything that you have been working on safely, perhaps over and above even what you normally do for backups, so I am doing that, strange as it may seem.
Good luck with writing and ironing out all the issues, and again, best wishes to your husband for a speedy and successful recovery.
Comment by elizabeth — June 20, 2011 @ 4:32 pm
Morrygan: Advice to do more backups is always good, esp. when other stresses can make someone forget to do so (I immediately backed up onto a particular thumb drive I thought was within two days of “current.” And discovered it was over a month out of date!) So thanks!
Genko: There are some background things going on that turned out not to be plot-relevant (or don’t seem so now–you never know–) Kieri had political reasons more than economic ones for staying in the north, and would have needed to withdraw all his investments from the south to stay north longer. However, he had some personal leverage with neighboring lords. Arcolin, Kieri was sure, would have less trouble getting permission to move troops south and more trouble moving money north.
Comment by Genko — June 21, 2011 @ 6:28 am
Ah, thanks for answering that question. These things just pop up into my mind sometimes. I can see how the political issues would swamp the economic ones for a time, and then everything shifts and economics move to he fore with new demands. There was a mention in Deed of various changes involved with having the whole Company stay at the stronghold, but it makes sense that you wouldn’t go into that all that much, given everything else going on at the time.
Comment by Carolyn Rau — June 21, 2011 @ 11:01 am
Elizabeth, thank you for writing. Anything. Anything at all.
Love your stuff.
Comment by RW Schaefer — July 10, 2011 @ 3:34 am
There must be a factor I don’t know about. Surely the fans would love to have MORE PAGES AND CHAPTERS in your books, so the concept of TRADING one set for another escapes me, and the idea of adding them all into the book seems obvious to this ignorant dolt.
Hoping for MORE.
MORE is better.
Thanks for all your efforts.
Semper Fi.