What happened to the mouse?

The work file (the Scrivener document) for The Enceladus Calyx is over 48 thousand words. There's several thousand in notes files on the iPhone that I haven't bothered to transfer over (the smoothest way I've figured to do this is to email the note to myself. Apparently if you use DropBox you can synch Scrivener files between machines, but the IOS version of Scrivener is another twenty bucks).

A growing cast and I'm getting close to violating the One Steve Limit; there's already an Andrea, an Ariadne, and at least one Athena, and all three get mentioned in at least one conversation. About half the steadily growing cast still have place-holder names, though.

(I was tempted to go with Persephone for the antiquities dealer with a small gallery in a trendy shopping district of Athens. There was some possible dialog about her going through a real goth phase in high school and never grew out of it. But Ariadne lets me have her remark about both being weavers to my protagonist Penny...that is, Penelope. So I'd still be flirting with Steve limits.)

It's all about discovery writing right now. I'm simultaneously re-writing three different scenes. Some of that is closing in on character voice. Some of it is experimenting with pacing. And some of it is that endless juggle of when you drop information on the audience. I didn't think any of my previous drafts had really established Penny as a first-time traveler. She didn't even get a name in several of them. So I just did a new draft of the first dozen paragraphs that shifts the opening back twenty minutes or so and covers her meeting with Biro, the art student she's hired as a camera person. (Not a placeholder name, oddly enough.)

It's funny. When I first created him he was almost silent, speaking only reluctantly. In the latest draft he's driving the conversation. That's why I don't believe in getting too crazy with character bios and so forth before you've actually started to write. Not unless you are very experienced and know exactly what it is you are going to need those characters to have.

I don't have much hope of finishing a draft of the fourth scene before the weekend is over, though. Can blame being sick for two days but still...I'll be lucky to get the action to the archaeological dig in Germany before I have to go off and mix microphones for that children's show. Sigh.)

##

Picked up a 5C mouthpiece (got a cheap one...same maker as the trumpet, and the 7C that it shipped with.) It's different. Easier blow, oddly enough easier shifting, and a much richer tone especially in the bottom end. The pedal is coming nice and strong. A little harder to hit that high C on it, though. Which means I should probably keep using it; just like practicing with a practice mute, the resistance (or, in the case of the mouthpiece, lack of artificial support) means you grow the muscles faster. But I still like the 7C more.

##

I know the old joke about not having time to write a shorter letter. This post was done in haste as are most of mine today but I still deleted two words for every three I kept.