Category: General

Just a friendly update from Cath’s local tech guru/site admin,
Continue reading “Site Enhancement”

Here are those outtakes I said I would post. These should give you a good idea of Errol, Geoffrey, Marcellus, and Stephanus.
Continue reading “Outtakes from chapter 2”

I was going to put outtakes here today, but I’ve discovered that converting everything to simplified text, and then editing it takes more time than I’ve got.

So, going to check with my tech guru and see if there’s an easier way to skin a cat. I will be working on chapter 3, starting this evening, and I’ll see what I can learn about getting scenes in here.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your forbearance.

Catherine

Boys and Girls:

I started reading SoS chapter 1 today, to get the flow of the thing for the next scene, and discovered a boat load of mistakes. Turns out I’d saved the wrong version of the beasty. Well, this put me in a revising mood, and I tidied up chapters 1 and 2. I decided to leave chapter 2 at a mere 19 pages for now. That’s where we stop talking about the curse, and the scene I was trying to add on was more suited for the next chapter. We’ll see what happens in the rewrite.

So I have some notes for chapter 3, I wrote an Amanda scene from outtake land, and I’m writing a fight scene from outtake land. That was about 3 hours of work. I’m pooped now, and off to town to buy groceries.

See you tomorrow.

Catherine

Apologies! Things look really whacky here tonight. I’ll be looking into that.

Well, today’s seven pages introduced Carlo Borgia and Elaine Klarion to Stephanus. There’s a lot of good personal stuff, and some necessary exposition. I’m a little concerned about pacing, but I’m hoping for some strong workshop help. My gut says after so much child violence in the first chapter, a more subtle and delicate second chapter is the way to go, but I don’t want anyone to be bored.

In a revision or two, I’ll post a snippet.

Catherine

So far, today has been a distribution day. Send out the completed outline to interested parties. Add scenes in that you’ve written earlier. Post scenes and revised chapters at workshops.

Class has been cancelled tonight, however, so I should have some time to watch more M*A*S*H write some chapter 2 scenes for Substance, and write one more outtake scene.

Now, lessee if this works as a feed into my lj.

Catherine

Rough scene writing today. I killed Marcellus. That won’t come until much later in the Klarion stories, but I wrote the scene today for the outtakes from the original version of the story. It was so sad! When I get a chance, I’ll post it in various spots.

Plotted chapter 2 of the original work. I will introduce new characters in Elaine and Isolde (the first live generation of Klarions in the story), get the Hathersage kids in the story (Amanda, Robbie, Milo, and a more British named Suki) and get Carlo Borgia set up as a tutor in the story. That should finish out the chapter, and get the story moving with a bit of kid adventure.

Tomorrow I’ll load about 3 scenes from my zip drive into the chapter outtakes that are already written, and write the rough drafts of chapter 2, provided the weather cooperates with me and lets me get to the zip drive tomorrow.

Stay warm! Stay dry! Stay upright!

Catherine

Well, the giri outline is done, and now I have to procrastinate further write the selected scenes I’ll enjoy!

Actually, for those of you who asked for the outline, it should be coming to you no later than Tuesday, depending on the virtues or lack thereof of tomorrow’s windshield repair man. The inserted scenes will follow as soon as possible.

***

On the real writing front, I revised another chapter today: the chapter in which Stephanus and Errol visit Esme, and Stephanus is attacked by Ma’at. It’s also the chapter where Geoffrey tells Errol about the Klarion curse. Unlike revising the first chapter, this writing is pretty good, and I’m happier with it after the fact. I have moved this action up a little bit in time, making S&E older when it occurs.

Now, the dilemna. The very next chapter jumps ahead too fast for this book, so I must add more to this chapter for padding to make the story work. New, original material. And here I’d hoped to coast a little bit longer on old stuff. Well, there is no such thing as a free lunch, I guess. So, here are some ideas I’ve had.

My thoughts so far? These are my possibilities.

1. Explore the conversation Stephanus has with Geoffrey.
2. Have Grandma stop by.
3. Do a scene with the other side of the family.
4. Have Errol and Stephanus interact with some of the Hathersage kids.
5. Something else that hasn’t come to mind yet.

So, I’ll be exploring new scenes over the next couple of days, and hopefully come up with some detailing tomorrow during tomorrow’s writing session. If I can pen a couple of new scenes in the original story, and some scenes from the outline, I will consider it a successful day.

See you all tomorrow.

Catherine

Righty-o!

First of all, melded together the first chapter of Substance of Shadows. Nothing substantial changed, so that was rewriting. Here’s what we did.

New names:
Stephanus Gale instead of You-Know-Who
Tink becomes Esper, a shadow servant

The basic stuff can stay. Atreus is still a drunken abuser of tiny children. Flavia is still the cold mother. The Klarions are still themselves.

I’ll earnestly be interested to see where the story goes once we get out of the early years. The boys will have tutors to begin with, but I’m going to send them to …public school? With normal kids?

***

The outline is finished!

***

Tomorrow’s tasks:

1. Read and polish outline.
2. Begin out take scenes.
3. Work on second chapter revision of Substance.

Catherine

Last night I managed to get to the final conflict on the outline of what would have happened in the fan fiction, then discovered that there are a lot of pieces to the final conflict, and that I needed to let the blighters simmer a bit.

So…moved onto the first chapter of the original Substance of Shadows, and played with it long enough to decide that the Erasmus Klarion piece at the beginning must go somewhere else.

Sort of a defeatist day for the muse, actually. I’m hoping when I sit back down tonight, it’s a little better.

Catherine