Writing Metrics
Aug. 14th, 2011 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jacey3478 words today. Whew!
I've been stalled on the rewrite of Between Wind and Water. While jealously watching![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
la_marquise_de_ and desperance racing each other and clocking up a couple of thousand words each on an almost daily basis, I've been struggling with the build up to a set piece which involves my characters escaping from the main antagonist by shooting the 'rapids' under Old London Bridge. I'd had the river sequence in my head for weeks, but I couldn't get the build up sorted out. Thursday - only 536 words, Friday - even worse - only 322. This evening the floodwaters broke the dam. 3476 words in five hours.
There had to be a confrontation with the bad guy - and since he's a dark magic user of unknown ability it couldn't be straightforward, but I didn't know what he was going to do to give my guys a hard time. Sometimes you just have to write it to find out. Today I got that far and finally found out what he was up to. And pretty nasty it was, too.
Did the good guys win? At the moment they think so... but...
Anyhow I can now move on to the next bit of plot! Yay!
Of course, now I'm going to have to delete 2,600 words written over the last couple of weeks because what I've done today has eliminated the need for it, but that's fine. It was boring.
I've been stalled on the rewrite of Between Wind and Water. While jealously watching
la_marquise_de_ and desperance racing each other and clocking up a couple of thousand words each on an almost daily basis, I've been struggling with the build up to a set piece which involves my characters escaping from the main antagonist by shooting the 'rapids' under Old London Bridge. I'd had the river sequence in my head for weeks, but I couldn't get the build up sorted out. Thursday - only 536 words, Friday - even worse - only 322. This evening the floodwaters broke the dam. 3476 words in five hours. There had to be a confrontation with the bad guy - and since he's a dark magic user of unknown ability it couldn't be straightforward, but I didn't know what he was going to do to give my guys a hard time. Sometimes you just have to write it to find out. Today I got that far and finally found out what he was up to. And pretty nasty it was, too.
Did the good guys win? At the moment they think so... but...
Anyhow I can now move on to the next bit of plot! Yay!
Of course, now I'm going to have to delete 2,600 words written over the last couple of weeks because what I've done today has eliminated the need for it, but that's fine. It was boring.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Aug. 15th, 2011 09:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 15th, 2011 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 15th, 2011 03:02 pm (UTC)Have you read Stephenson's descriptions in Quicksilver et al, of those self-same rapids between the starlings of the bridge? (This comprises my entire knowledge of the phenomenon, you understand, so I have no idea whether it's micrometrically researched or made up out of rumour and whole cloth...)
no subject
Date: Aug. 15th, 2011 11:07 pm (UTC):-)
Even so, another 3,335 words today.
No I haven't read Stephenson, and perhaps I shouldn't in case I'm influenced too much, but I've read non fiction books on London Bridge recommended by people well into the history of both the city and the bridge, consulted the massed brains of the Milford skills list, and found quite a lot on the web including technical/architectural details of the Bridge (this is the period after the houses had been removed) plus a contemporary engraving (and large scale maps). I've also talked to people who row on the Thames (and elsewhere) now and watched some youtube videos of historical rowers on the Thames in similar-sized boats as used in 1800. (Minus the rapids of course, but with the River misbehaving due to weather conditions.)