Summer writing schedule kicking in, finally — start the day with tea, meds, and writing. I didn’t start ’til after 8 today, but I’m hoping to push that earlier; we’ll see.
Here’s a bit of my process, in case it’s helpful to anyone: When I’m writing a new scene with dialogue, which most of mine have, I typically just write the dialogue first. So last time I worked on this story, I finished with writing a chunk of dialogue for the next scene. That makes it easy to start again the next day, because I go back to that scene and fill in the narration, description, character actions — that’s where I sharpen my sense of the scene, what’s happening with everyone there. I may revise the dialogue a bit as I go.
And then I write the next scene’s dialogue — and that’s a fine stopping place, if I only have an hour to work. If I have more time, then I’ll repeat that process. But ending with raw dialogue is helpful for being able to pick up easily the next time I work.
Up to 17, 585 words. We’re definitely leaving short story territory and heading into novelette — I don’t think I’ve ever written a novelette before — fun. It’s also fun because this story is set a few years before The Stars Change, so I get to fill in some backstory on some of my main characters from that book. Lovely to revisit them. I also put in a tiny Easter egg in this scene, for any Sri Lankan lit. fans. 🙂
The white stucco walls of the language and literature department offices were complemented by dark wood furniture, carved with fanciful Old Earth creatures and decorated with brass trimmings. Gauzy drapes in the University’s signature deep blue, shot with gold thread, graced the windows, filtering the morning light.
They’d spent three hours on faculty interviews, and so far, they’d gotten nothing of value. No one saw anything, no one knew anything, but they had to check. Gaurav was getting impatient – Kris could tell from the increasingly agitated flicking of his tail. But this was how you learned, by doing. Police work wasn’t about flashes of brilliance – it relied on detail and patience. Look closely, at everything. Eventually, it would all come clear. Kris wasn’t religious, but if he had faith in anything, it was police work.
The current professor they were interviewing – Rajiv-something – was a talker, and had been lecturing at them for a solid ten minutes, but he only wanted to talk about Ganeshananthan, a 21st century Old Earth novelist, the subject of his current monograph. Sounded fascinating, actually, but not relevant to the case.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” A pretty young woman in a sky-blue sari stood at the door, a metal tiffin box in her hand. “I didn’t mean to interrupt – Rajiv, you forgot your lunch.”
The professor rose from his desk and came forward to take the container – “This is my wife, Amara.”
“Are you faculty here too?” Gaurav asked.
She blushed. “Oh no. I’m…nothing, really. Rajiv’s wife. Although I have an interview for a job at the port next week…”
“They don’t care about that,” her husband interrupted. “You should go, let us get back to our conversation…”
Yes, he’s an ass. Don’t worry — there are consequences down the line. 🙂 Break now for light swimming (also trying to swim every weekday, we’ll see if I manage it), then more writing. I’m hoping to finish this story today, so I can send it to workshop (which meets on Wednesday).
Pic: Arya keeping me company in the writing shed.
