bookkeeping

[truepenny]

1,680 words in Chapter 9 of emperor thus far.

Stopping because stuck.

Stuck because I have no idea how to wangle my plot MacGuffin.

*snarl*

Comments

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Can you say what it is? If not, that's OK. It just got me curious. :-)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I need a way for my characters to figure out that a particular disaster was sabotage when (1.) we're at pre-WWI technology at best (so no fancy lab analyses à la X-Files), (2.) all they have to go on is the smoldering wreckage, and (3.) the saboteur was not planning to have the sabotage identified as such.

We are also hampered by the fact that my personal tech-level (as in, technology I can explain, even to myself) is back in the Renaissance with most of the rest of my mind. :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Smell something they shouldn't?

See that it burned from the wrong place -- unevenly, or as if started from the left rather than the thing in the middle exploding, or something like that?

Some innocent spear-carrier saw something suspicious?
("Oh no! Oh! Dear me! It's all burned up! Is that nice Mr. Villian hurt? I saw him coming in here just five minutes before it started." "Mr. Villain had no reason to be here then, Amanda. I wonder what brought him here?" "Could it be... sabotage, Bill? After all, Mr. Villain would have a lot to gain by seeing this place burned." "Surely, Mr. Villain would never stoop to a thing like that, Amanda." --sorry, got a bit carried away by the square jaws and the fluttering there.)

Talk to someone who knows about that kind of sabotage and set-up at that tech level, and see what they suggest. You could try rasfc, where the person I'd ask if he was speaking to me is likely to give you seven lovely and technically precise answers.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Happily, matociquala gave me the phrase I needed. But thank you very much for the suggestions.

And now I want you to write a story called "Amanda and Mr. Villain."

[necessaryspace.livejournal.com]

Whenever my friend gets frustrated w/ her writing, her favorite hobby is to smack it w/ a wet trout.

I have strange friends. That's what makes them fun.

But I am sorry you're stuck.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The problem with TO BE FIGURED OUT LATER is that, in fiction, for me, not solving the problem means exactly that: not solving the problem. I can't really go on. Personal brain-quirk thingy.

I do that all the time in my academic writing, though, where [transition] is a common sight in my rough drafts.