Blackdamp

 

In my head, that's the working title now. Pity it would never work for a novel.  Blackdamp just sounds icky and depressing. What are you going to read next, Warmspit ?

(Don't give the YA authors any ideas.)

So the mainspring of the plot right now seems to be the voyage of the Swift. But the more I thought about the Savant society, the more that episode turned into a perfect bit of Dark Academia. I still don't quite have the right character to explore Not-London in the same depth, though. Need someone who can go properly Oliver Twist about the place.

I'm toying with the idea of a Designated Protagonist who is charming, good-looking, lucky...but we are telling the story from the point of view of one of his supporting characters, specifically the gadgeteer. Because I've also really wanted to read -- or write -- a story where a hacker type gets to engineer the shit out of the problem. 

If it is going to be airships all the time, I also need to think about airship combat. My thoughts at the moment is this resembles modern fighter combat in a few ways; if you can see it, you can take it down (kind of hard to armor a dirigible). If the guys who are closer to steam age are still using cannon, they have to close a lot closer. The diesel guys could have missiles, and that puts the onus on anti-missiles, active defenses, shooting first, and best of all, not being anywhere near the shooting in the first place.

(That, and not taking a big bag of hydrogen into a battle).

But my thoughts there are still pretty vague. One has to have a certain balance, a certain dual-mind approach; let one mind come up with what is actually reasonable and sensible and don't let the mind that is worrying how to write plots around it interfere with the process too soon. Eventually, one nudges tech and other world building to whichever of multiple near-equal options has the best story-telling opportunities. But try not to do this prematurely.

***

Sometimes a Fox is in tatters. I am basically tossing most of my scene and chapter plan, and about half the previously written scenes are getting scrapped for parts.

A lot of work that takes a ton of concentration and can't really be done off-line. I need all the screen real estate I can to try to re-arrange the pieces into something that will work. I really am trying to pare this one down. The problem is always figuring out what you can put in if you don't want to talk about art, history, describe the settings, or have a lot of action.

I still don't get how so many people manage to get a hundred thousand words out of riding tireless horses through largely un-described terrain, and hitting thing with swords at intervals. But then, apparently a common approach to writing is to write lean, expand in the edit.

I can't do it. I have too many ideas to fit before I've even finished the outline.

I opened the General Notes file for the novel over brunch. I was hoping I could clarify where I'm trying to go with the themes and relationships and the general plot.

That file is 50,000 words long.