Afternoon, everybody!
Since NaNoWriMo is wrapping up this week, it seemed appropriate to conclude with a song that helped set the mood for much of my draft, All Eyes, and helped me relax when needed between writing and classwork sessions. Therefore, I give you as this week's music the classic Mrs. Robinson, by Simon & Garfunkel. (Usual copyrights apply; I own nothing!)
Apart from dialogue, coming up with aspects of character personality is probably the hardest part of writing, for me. These aspects can be nitpicky, and seemingly unimportant (the way they sit; their taste in books or music; what type of smoke or drink they prefer, or none, etc.), yet they're often just as or even more revealing than any kind of lengthy description or conversation. In the case of All Eyes, I was mulling how a character's seemingly ordinary wakeup routine would hint at the highly surveilled world he lives in, and how his line of work relates to it...and out of the blue, a certain chunk of lyrics just clicked:
"We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files/ We'd like to help you learn to help yourself/ Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes..."
Though I don't think the song as a whole has much to do with the theme of my work, this one bit worked so well in that moment that I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Once it was added, the rest of the scene and chapter was easy to roll out, and the draft set off at a steady clip that hasn't let up yet. As of right now, I'm on course to hit the 50K word count finish line by the 29th, a day early--at which point, I will take a couple days off, then resume writing for the rest of December, albeit more slowly. Although I'm very far from the editing stage, let alone publication, I'm certain this draft will be seen on physical and digital shelves in the relatively near future.
Nor is this the only draft that's been doing well of late. After a long delay, I've finally joined the forum for Sea Lion Press (the Alternate History publishing outfit I've chosen for my Civil War What-If, Bloody Relations), and have already gotten in touch with several members and staff who will likely be of great help in getting this draft released! My ebooks Dillinger in Charleston and For State & Country are also on sale again on the Amazon.uk site, until 11/29; have a look if you're browsing new or just different fiction, and feel free to share or leave comments and reviews on these or my other works! See you all in December!