WIP report and musings
Apr. 30th, 2024 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereI've made a bunch of posts about Written on the Mirror since... May 5th last year when I fixed part three. Just got done cleaning up part seven, which now sits at a positively skeletal 20,259 words. I'm sure I will pay for that later, but later is going to be a good problem to have.
There were logical gaps I filled (or at least made less obviously bad) and back room conspiracies needing clarification. Missing characters needed to be layered in, and I had once more to backtrack and add missing details to earlier portions. Always a good feeling to know I am improving the end result, however slowly.
One of the odd aspects of this ungainly draft is that when I first began it I did not ship Jeremiah/Kurdy, and the whole thing was designed as pure platonic life partners. Kind of bleak, really, since the implication was that Elizabeth and Libby so thoroughly traumatized both men that they could never love again. Changing it in a shippier direction does not alter the plot, which was always going to end with them on the road, full circle, but it does reframe the emotional loading to be more hopeful.
I have not fully decided whether I should "develop" the relationship, having them wrestle with the emotions in a realistic fashion the way I have them wrestle with everything else, or on the contrary have it be breathtakingly simple and unquestioned. I'm leaning toward the second option, because this story is already an angst casserole, and it would be nice to have one plotline that just is. Jeremiah and Kurdy have enough to struggle with in their relationship without having to redefine their sexuality. I think.
Or maybe it's just an excuse to keep the word count under some kind of control.
There were logical gaps I filled (or at least made less obviously bad) and back room conspiracies needing clarification. Missing characters needed to be layered in, and I had once more to backtrack and add missing details to earlier portions. Always a good feeling to know I am improving the end result, however slowly.
One of the odd aspects of this ungainly draft is that when I first began it I did not ship Jeremiah/Kurdy, and the whole thing was designed as pure platonic life partners. Kind of bleak, really, since the implication was that Elizabeth and Libby so thoroughly traumatized both men that they could never love again. Changing it in a shippier direction does not alter the plot, which was always going to end with them on the road, full circle, but it does reframe the emotional loading to be more hopeful.
I have not fully decided whether I should "develop" the relationship, having them wrestle with the emotions in a realistic fashion the way I have them wrestle with everything else, or on the contrary have it be breathtakingly simple and unquestioned. I'm leaning toward the second option, because this story is already an angst casserole, and it would be nice to have one plotline that just is. Jeremiah and Kurdy have enough to struggle with in their relationship without having to redefine their sexuality. I think.
Or maybe it's just an excuse to keep the word count under some kind of control.
