851

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

I blocked the Internet by making our site private, but I was told to open it up again and that K had satisfied his need for privacy by deleting his posts and separating names.

I can go back to ptrivate settings if asked. It blocked specific posts by requiring a password but still found the site. K's Xtra paranoid precautions keep anyone from searching out his storyline. However, I wouldn't depend on his comments being accessible for long. Record them if you want to keep the specifics.

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

njc wrote:

I'm still working on my next chapter.  No title yet.  The opening episode is running a bit long, and I need time to think and prune.  I've got the second episode done, though, and I hope you'll like it.  I also hope I didn't overdo parts of it.

Meanwhile, I've got a slow-crisis that is speeding up, and I have less that 16 hours to put things straight, so I won't be writing for probably 30 hours.

edit: I may also be working on the last of the infection.  I'm stilll on the levifloxacin (sp?) and I'm still slowly improving.

Hope you're better soon, crisis averted and chapter posted before long! And I'm sure it will be just as good as the others! smile

853

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Not sure just how to take that (grin!) but that second episode has the right plot but the wrong telling.

There are two balances I'm trying to strike.  One of the earliest reviews I got, when I finally got B1Ch1 posted, praised my spare style.  OTOH, one of my reviewers here is constantly pounding me for more detail.  It has to be the right detail, in the right place.

The other balance is between summary narrative (telling) and close narrative (showing).  Part of Tolkien's genius was his ability to get both of these just right.  I've got a long way to go.

I plan to read =The Continental Op= tonight after I finish making notes on those four pages.  Purely for research, you understand.

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

K. wrote:

No no... Tolkien did not get these right. I'll go find five people who complain he describes grass more than he describes characters.

Here's one.

855

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

The characters describe themselves--I am what I do.

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Cogito ergo sum.

857 (edited by njc 2016-03-26 04:24:01)

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Or Cogito Ergo Dumm.

But the question wasn't character description.  It was balance and movement between description in general and action, and between summary and close narrative.  Anyhow, on description I quite agree with the 'sludge' paragraph of this early review (assuming that tNBW will let you see it).  You have to know what to describe, and how to do it economically.

858 (edited by njc 2016-03-28 20:09:30)

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

My sleep and wake times have been shifting again, and on top of that I've had some good thoughts and conclusions, both about the Erevain episode (Thanks, Nicholas A.!) and some (much) later story thread/theme/plot matter, so I've spent a little time on them.  I'm also thinking about sending Melayne back to get more info from Pengrit when her trail dries up ... which means a stop at the Academy to find out from Kirsey where Midlich lives--before Threckesrom gets word that Merran may be on campus.
And either tonight or tomorrow I plan to see =Fastball=, and the nearest theaters are an hour or so away.
And that's why Paddy won't be at work today.

859

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Okay, most recent thoughts on the Erevain episode are to get much of the backstory while Mama is interrogating Erevain.  Oh, and Merran's spells lasted a bit longer than she meant them too--and Melayne is impressed and a little frightened about how her daughter managed to straitjacket Erevain's mind.  (All the more reason to be sure that Merran gets someone training her while Mama is tied up.)  I'm not going to work on that right now, apart from writing a little intro to add into my notes.

860

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Chapter up in B2!  Not the one I wanted, but the one after that.  Quotidian, but I hope at least a little engaging.  Now I need to go saw some wood.

861

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

With B2Ch10 out of my head, I'm starting to see Ch9 and the Ch's after 10 more clearly, and how each shapes the other's scantlings.

The big point of Ch10 is that the kids can't be left with this family, at least not for now.  Merran and Jamen will have to take them along a little bit longer.

And I think Merran will get to see Kirsey's little show over the center hall of the library.  I've got more to work out there.

862

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Wringing m hands over Ch9.  I need to keep the spotlight on Maurand, even though Merran and the others are the actors.  I'm afraid I may have to resort to some passives.  New writing muscles here.

863

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Evolution is tough but worth it. Persevere!

864

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

I may mark time by working forward on things.  The whole point of this to use Pausonallie to bring Merrran and Jamen into an underground ensemble at the Academy.  I've got a lot of work to make that happen.  (Also, Ch10 is why they can't leave the kids with Pausonallie's family .. though they may end there eventually.)

865

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Trying Ch9 from Pausonallie's PoV.  It may work, but I'll probably need three or four passes to get it into shape and whittle it down.  (Feel up to it, Amy?  AJ?  Anyone else?)

866

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Okay,  I've got a version 0.0 (or maybe 0.(-2)) for Ch9.  I need to type it up, making the corrections I know of, and see what it looks like in print.  It might work better than I'd hoped, or it might be a disaster.

867

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Will check it out as able. Feel free to remind me. What was just a cough and flu is now a raging ear infection. Called off sick yesterday for the first time in five years.

868

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

You won't see it for at least 15 hours.  Take care of that ear, and everything else.

869

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Whaaa?  CHS (can't hear shit).  It makes it easier during phone calls thought. I don't have to plug the other ear in a noisy room.

870

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Some small edits on B2Ch9, Maurand.

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

amy s wrote:

Whaaa?  CHS (can't hear shit).  It makes it easier during phone calls thought. I don't have to plug the other ear in a noisy room.

Fortunately, you can still read. Hint. :-)

872

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

Eh?  Wot wuz I talkkin bout?

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

K. wrote:

Fortunately, you can still read. Hint. :-)

I wish I could but people don't post

Au contraire, Monsieur. My epigraph is up as a short, which some people (ok no one) has read. Do I need to beat you all with a stick? Actually, it's just noise while I ponder the first chapter of Act IV. I'll give you a hint: Caligula!

874

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

K, you're free to read my next two chapters, seeing as you're holding the discussion in my forum.

Amy, good to have you back.

875

Re: The Sorcerer's Progress

One of the saddest things I ever saw:

I was hospitalized for an infection, and had to share the room with a number of people.   I was moved out of the first room; the other occupant was a boor who vomited all over the toilet seat and couldn't be bothered even to call someone to clean it.  The nurses had pity on me.

In the second room, the first 'roommate' was a man fairly deep in some progressive dementia.  He'd been in another care facility, which discharged him when they decided they couldn't handle him any more.  He ended up in the hospital while his daughters tried to arrange for home nursing and the necessary bed.  They were also trying to arrange for private duty nursing in the hospital, but it was nearly midnight and they couldn't get anyone quickly.

The daughters--late 30's, I would guess--were left to attend to their father's nearly constant, unregulated bodily needs.  After a few hours one of them came around the curtain to apologize for the unending activity.  I told her that none was necessary and that I admired how she and her sister were handling their situation.

That said, my own cultural sense says that a daughter should not have to attend to her father's bodily needs, nor a son to his mother's.  That clearly shaped part of B2-Maurand.