Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Unexpected Stumbling Blocks

From my own experience of working on my second novel in a series, I've discovered that it isn't so much the main plot or the world development or the character development that causes me the most problems. Sure, all three items can be tricky and troublesome, but it's the little details that can cause some of the biggest headaches.

In the first couple books of my series, The Dark Days Series, my main character Mira is traveling a great deal. In Nightwalker, she packs a bag of clothes, expecting to be gone only a few nights before flying home again. Yeah, uhmm.... well, Mira is gone from home a lot longer than that. So, now the trick becomes trying to keep track of what she is wearing, how many times she has changed clothes, what has gotten destroyed and can't be worn again. It may be urban fantasy, but I've got to keep some of it realistic. I can't give Mira with a bottomless bag o' clothes. Well, yeah, I guess I could, but it just wouldn't fit with the rest of the book. So, more than once, I've gone through both Nightwalker and book 2, listing what Mira's wearing and when she changes clothes. I never thought I would be working in such intricate detail when I started this series. Heck, I can't even remember what I wore yesterday...

After all the worry about plot and subplots and weaving it together in a beautiful tapestry, you gotta remember the little things. Ugh.

On a side note, I curse myself. I opened my big mouth yesterday on the blog, commenting on the snow, and what happened?!?! We got more snow. I woke up this morning to find a covering of 2-3 inches on the ground. More snow is due Thursday night with it ending on Friday morning in the form of freezing rain. The only thing worse than snow is snow covered in a sheet of ice.

4 comments:

Harry Markov said...

I know what you mean! Exactly what I wrote about yesterday!

Anyways I have to say one thing. As I am a major fashion freak, I have worked out sheets with clothes my Samantha wears and how she got them and so on. I did it before hand, because everytime ina scene I see her different and the clothes have to reflect that, so I started with teh clothes and decided on the plot through how she gets them.

Rachel Vincent said...

I'm jealous of the snow, but you can keep the ice. We get plenty of that here, and it's horrible. It looks like water until you start sliding on it and miss your own driveway. ;-(

Candace said...

I'm with RV on this one. Snow is cool, but ice is not. Looks kinda pretty though. We don't get snow in my area.

I'm with you on keeping track of the minor things. I have a hard enough time keeping track of all the siblings and family of the character(s), nevermind what they're wearing! Maybe I need a notebook with many lists... :D

Stay dry and warm!

Chandra Rooney said...

Ditto! Details like what you've mentioned get me all the time, too.

...it is no longer raining in LA. I hope it is because I have successfully sent it to go turn to snow in the mountains somewhere else.