Dear Udam

Now you're talking too much. Please quit it.

Thx,
-WL

Dear Wren

I am, as usual, deeply, deeply indebted to you, sweet ship. Thank you for rescuing my chapter so neatly.

Yours with much love,
-Writer Lady

Dear Udam

Wow! Thanks for taking charge, man. You're my official hero for the day!

My gratitude,
-WL

Dear Lars and Fenn (again...)

That POV thing? Forget it. Suck it up. Ain't gonna happen.

Y'all are galley slaves. Y'all are gonna row now.

Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter,
-WL

Dear Lars, Fenn and Udam

OK, this puts a major twist in my knickers, boys.

But I hear ya. I don't much like it, but I hear ya.

Even so, a major POV change doesn't belong in the middle of my chapter. I'm just not sure how I'm going to justify that.

One chapter, one POV. That's how I like things. Keeps things neat and orderly.

And I was REALLY wanting to keep Fenn's POV 'til last. No, of course, I don't know why!! What a stupid question... I just wanted the reader to see him from everyone else's POV first. Then we'll get into his head.

I don't know why, really. I just want it that way. I guess I'm thinking that's going to put a twist on things - keep the reader guessing about whether he's a good guy or a bad guy.

However.

There are an awful lot of things that are just going to be a major pain in the ASS to show from inside Lars' head. Withdrawal symptoms. Guilt. How and why Fenn changes his mind.

Shit.

Off to untwist the knickers,
-WL

Dear Lars and Fenn

(and Udam too, if you have anything to do with this)

Guys! Thanks for finally boarding the Wren. That's nice. Now we're there. Now what?

I mean, I KNOW what. In fact, the end is written. It's this bit in the middle I'm having trouble with, see?

We go from Fenn on the main deck, scowling and distant and no mantala, to Fenn on the wheel deck, not scowling, less distant and where did that mantala come from?

I'm also not sure how we get Fenn to hear the Wren. But he has to. That's the turning point, see? Does he fall? (I have this vague vision of him on his hands and knees and it would be like the Wren to throw him....) Does he touch her accidentally? (A hand on a railing? The wheel?)

And, for the the love of Mike, where did that mantala come from?

Lars, help me out here, will ya?

Nearing the end, but not near enough,
-WL

Dear Lars and Fenn

Boys. Please. That's enough with the aimless conversation.

Row the dinghy. Board the ship.

That's all you have to do, why is it so hard?

A pox on both of you, if somebody doesn't start rowing real quick-like,
-WL

Dear Me

Quit dithering. Sit your ass down and write that chapter.

No, really. I mean it.

Think about it this way, honey. When you're 50, you are not going to be too happy with yourself for sitting here putting it off. You are not going to like the excuses you came up with. Trust me.

So fucking what if it's not perfect. So fucking what if it's "hard" (no one said it would be easy). So fucking what if you get done with it and it sucks shit and no one wants to read it. Who are you writing this for anyway? No one but you in the first place, so pack up Pamela the Inner Editor and send her off to Hawaii for the rest of the week and GET IT DONE.

Much love,
-Me

Dot

Another issue: how to work in the Lars plotline with the existing one. Oy.

-WL

So. Dorothy.

This idea you mentioned in the car on the way home today... the one about Lars? Yeah, that one. Um, complicated, but really interesting idea... Might get ol' Lars in a heap of trouble. Which would SO serve his ass right for complicating Novel #1 so incredibly much.

I like it. I think.

But I really want to consider it carefully before going whole hog on it, ya know. I mean, if I get half way through the story and ol' Lars-y boy has nothing more to do.... well, that wouldn't be so spiffy....

The thing is this: Do we really NEED to know what's going on back home at all? I mean, yes, as backstory/history for Novel #1, certainly. But would it really make much sense to tell it like this - i.e., so explicitly? From my own standpoint, sure, I'd love to put Lars into some danger and see what gives and the whole roots of Fenn's drug addition thing is just tingly-good... It's just the order of it, I guess, that worries me...

So that's one thing to consider: should it be written as a prequel (where Novel #1 (or perhaps series #1) should be read first, then this story). Or should I write it as the first part of the story, INTENDING it to be read first? Hmmmm.... I think I'm inclined to go with the former. Not sure why. Just appeals to me. Feels right....

The other thing that appeals to me about it is that it gets me out of having "more" characters, know what I mean? I mean, yes, being inside the head of the bad guy is interesting, but I'm not sure I'm there yet...

I mean, look what happened with Aiden. We don't hate him. We pity him. That wasn't really the plan...

If I want to go the inside-the-mind-of-the-villian route, I guess I need to get that Greg Keyes book and psycho-analyze the crap out of it. 'Cuz otherwise, I'll probably end up with another Aiden - or worse, another Maribel! They were both supposed to be the bad guy/girl who took the fall and look what happened with HER... yeesch.

I really couldn't stand that happening to Reygin... I mean, I think it would be enough to understand his motivation - maybe through some kind of confession or discovery of a journal or conversation overheard or something (ya gettin' all this Lars?). But the inside of the man's head is probably a can o' worms, yeah?

Oh.

And if I'm using Lars for this.... Luci ought to show up. Heck, she wanted to show up anyway and I told her to fuck off. (You see how they are? Never, never name a character with a name that starts with "L". Never.)

Very interesting. Lars is loyal, so I can actually see him going to extremes if Fenn were to ask him to "watch over things" while he was gone. And given some dislike for Uncle Reygin (I hate that name still) and a pinch of rumor that Reygin is lying about something....

Yeah, it just might work. It just might

Thanks, Dottie... Glad we had this little chat...
-WL