Today some drive-by writing observations.
1. It’s easier to do interpersonal stuff in a book when you base some of it on your friend’s interactions in role-playing games. It’s harder, making all this stuff up on your own.
2. That said, I really owe Laura Mixon for her feeding the beast lecture at VP. I got some great angst out of my trolls last night as I did background work.
3. Are you, as an emergent novelist, looking for ways to cut down on the amount of crap you write in the first place (yes, it is okay to write crap, but maybe you’re under a book deadline or something, and need to be more focused from the get go?) Ilona Andrews writes a great entry on outlining, and I’m really taking it to heart, because yeah, I’m about at this point. I want to produce better work, faster.