*yawn*

[ksmith]

Finally, finally, *finally* finished a chapter that had just been dragging on and dragging on. It wasn't even a particularly long chapter--maybe 8 or 9 pages--but it flowed liked chopped rock. I think the problem is that I still don't quite have the handle on this POV, so actions are up in the air. Would she do this? Would she do that? At this point, almost everything rates at least a Maybe, and that makes it difficult to move forward in a definitive manner.

Of course, this is first draft. It's all supposed to suck anyway.

One thing is settled. POV is stubborn.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I know that feeling.

*passes the slivovitz*

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One problem is, like two of the POVs in CI, this is not a pleasant character to write. Alien mindset, in more ways than one, which means a struggle against making her one-dimensional, Easy Evil. She has reasons for doing what she does and being what she is. I just need to figure them out. With luck, I will do this sooner than I did with the 2 CI POVs--one month before the rewritten book is due is no time to figure out two main characters.

Not all baddies strike me like this. Evan van Reuter was a selfish bastard, but I enjoyed writing his POV. It allowed me to unleash my Inner Brat in ways never before experienced. All I had to do was think, 'what would a completely self-centered, selfish, arrogant, spolied SOB do now?' Ta-da! Even the simple act of writing his tantrums and machinations satisfied me, in an odd way. I got it out of my system.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

*nod*

There are baddies I *like* writing--I loved writing Valens, for example--and then there are some that just leave my skin crawling with a desire to get the heck away.

Which I guess, in both its extremes, is a good thing. At least one is engaging the character.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity (and assuming you're willing to share): was this planned all along to be the final Jani book, or did it come out that way in the plotting?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

At the time I signed the contract for books 4 and 5, I don't think I had planned it that way. As time went on, I realized that 1) I wanted to write other stuff, and 2) the writing business being what it is, there was no guarantee Jani 6+ would ever be sold/see print in the foreseeable future.

That being said, I think the business considerations supported the organic, gradual, thinking-through of the story arc, which took a few years. Given the serial novel way that the books are written, an end had to come eventually. Without giving too much away (I hope), the undercurrents supporting that ending thread through all four books so far. There's a logical stopping point. At this point, I don't see anything beyond it that wouldn't simply be rehash of what had gone before.

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

What I like is the fact that you're planning a natural end to the series, instead of letting it run on and on and on ad infinitum oh Lord this jumped the shark about five books back. Call me selfish, but I want Jani to go out on a high note.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

"Jani" = "high note". Must ponder this seeming dichotomy... *g*

Anyway, it was a partly organic/partly conscious decision, but yeah, this series does have a natural end.

I really admire the writers who can keep series going over many books, who can keep the characters and settings fresh from book to book. Possibly due to my limited reading, I see this most in mystery. There's a series, and there's backstory, but the latter doesn't grow so big over time that it overwhelms the individual tales. This is most likely because the plots are for the most part separate from the backstory--except in rare cases, the protag's life isn't an integral part of the crime/action. In the Jani books, backstory and plot are so intertwined that if you removed too much of one, the other wouldn't make sense.

I don't think one style is necessarily better than the other. I think the separate plot/backstory may be easier to sustain over time, but I confess that this is a lunchtime rumination and I haven't had time to give it much thought.