nano nerves
Oct. 4th, 2010 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperCurrently poking nano and having a nervous paranoia attack.
Mostly because although I've done original several times, and two of those have been based on stories i've had knocking around my notebook for a couple of years, this one is different. Really different. Variations on the characters have been floating around my head for *years*. The MI-13 'verse is one my mates know I've been writing for ages, and although this version only came about in the last year (with added abandoning one very basic concept for the first time *ever*), I worry I'm a bit too emotionally connected to it.
Because this version of the 'verse is now concentrating on someone who was originally a relatively minor character, there's a bloody great switcheroo going on. Since I changed a major point of backstory, one of the original major characters pointed out that she'd be better as a flashback and I have to decide whether to kill her off in a flashback or send her away. Major character #2 is being a bit smug since he gets to show off his on the job skills where I'd only ever focussed on his social/office life, but would like to know if his boyfriend is ever going to come up in the conversation. Major character #3 is really smug since he knows perfectly well that he emerged fully formed from my consciousness and has never changed and never needs to no matter how I twist the 'verse. Major character original is yelling at me because her background change has gone and changed all her relationships with the MI-13 lot who used to be her family/best mates, and that's also gone and changed the previous version of this permutation. While I point out that I just got rid of a lot of angst of this permutation. She's still sulking, but I'm really nervous about writing the changed relationships with the old major characters. Ack.
The other nervous paranoia is having read some of my old nanos over t'weekend, I'm worried about how samey I write my original characters - speech patterns, reactions, etc. And how magnified it's going to be in this one due to said 'verse being one of my oldest...
Anyway. This year's nano is young cop gets chucked into the London underworld as a long-term grass (and yes, they will make an Infernal Affairs joke) with added thieves, heists, werewolves, MI-13* and Russians.
*MI-13 is the agency who deals with the supernatural. They're half coppers and half spies, with a bit of social services and customs and excise thrown in. Quite simply, if it's a domestic involving werewolves, one of MI-13 will be there going 'Gina, put the frying pan down.'
Mostly because although I've done original several times, and two of those have been based on stories i've had knocking around my notebook for a couple of years, this one is different. Really different. Variations on the characters have been floating around my head for *years*. The MI-13 'verse is one my mates know I've been writing for ages, and although this version only came about in the last year (with added abandoning one very basic concept for the first time *ever*), I worry I'm a bit too emotionally connected to it.
Because this version of the 'verse is now concentrating on someone who was originally a relatively minor character, there's a bloody great switcheroo going on. Since I changed a major point of backstory, one of the original major characters pointed out that she'd be better as a flashback and I have to decide whether to kill her off in a flashback or send her away. Major character #2 is being a bit smug since he gets to show off his on the job skills where I'd only ever focussed on his social/office life, but would like to know if his boyfriend is ever going to come up in the conversation. Major character #3 is really smug since he knows perfectly well that he emerged fully formed from my consciousness and has never changed and never needs to no matter how I twist the 'verse. Major character original is yelling at me because her background change has gone and changed all her relationships with the MI-13 lot who used to be her family/best mates, and that's also gone and changed the previous version of this permutation. While I point out that I just got rid of a lot of angst of this permutation. She's still sulking, but I'm really nervous about writing the changed relationships with the old major characters. Ack.
The other nervous paranoia is having read some of my old nanos over t'weekend, I'm worried about how samey I write my original characters - speech patterns, reactions, etc. And how magnified it's going to be in this one due to said 'verse being one of my oldest...
Anyway. This year's nano is young cop gets chucked into the London underworld as a long-term grass (and yes, they will make an Infernal Affairs joke) with added thieves, heists, werewolves, MI-13* and Russians.
*MI-13 is the agency who deals with the supernatural. They're half coppers and half spies, with a bit of social services and customs and excise thrown in. Quite simply, if it's a domestic involving werewolves, one of MI-13 will be there going 'Gina, put the frying pan down.'
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Date: 2010-10-04 03:33 pm (UTC)and omg, I know how it feels to suddenly go "I have got the set-up ALL WRONG" and then run around in despair. My NaNo this year is going to be Draft 2 of a project I've had for... almost two years now (how did that happen?) and I've had to flip a lot of stuff around. It's going to be weird writing about the characters with a lot of the backhistory I thought I knew erased.
Which is a long way of saying, good luck! I shall be cheering you on.
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Date: 2010-10-04 04:04 pm (UTC)Originally, said major character who changed the most had been adopted and raised by MI-13 because of 'reasons that are too embarrassing and complicated to go into at this time'. So, secure and completely comfortable with operating with them and she'd gone undercover as a thief on occasion. Backstory got changed so she's always been a thief who gets employed by MI-13. ARGH.
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Date: 2010-10-05 03:28 pm (UTC)Regarding the dialogue, I was reading an article recently from an author about the way they wrote. It essentially boiled down to draft, after draft etc. With dialogue though, they only focused on it in later drafts. Basically they dedicated one entire draft to only going through every bit of dialogue and getting it right and personal to that individual. Until then, it was all samey, and focused on getting the story out. When the story was out they found the voice for the characters.
Just a thought.