Writing update

[lethargic_man]

End of first draft, just shy of 5 kwords. Which means final draft probably about 6, which is somewhat longer than I want it, but we'll see how long it wants to be. Next stage: the post-facto researching, which is going to be largely from Wikipedia, with printed sources backing it up. (It was trying to do the research ante facto, from printed books when I didn't know exactly when, where or with whom I was setting the story, that resulted in my first attempt to write it dying unwritten.)

I don't seem to be very good at this murder thing. My characters keep committing murder or mass murder and then tearing themselves up over it afterwards. Which is all well and good as a once-off, but I'm not comfortable writing it, and I'd rather not develop it as a leitmotif...

Comments

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Why are you letting them murder people, then?

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I'm not letting them do anything; it's what the story demands. (The previous case of mass murder I referred to above, for example, is in my retelling of the showdown between Elijah the prophet and Kid King Ahab as a Western.)

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Oh, fair enough. I suppose you couldn't very well make them behave in a more civilised way then.