I'm Due That Kick, Consider It A Present

Last week I talked about how we're all allowed to write crap, and in fact writing crap is preferable to writing nothing.

I also--foolishly in hindsight--said that if I hadn't written 5,000 words or more in a week, said people were free to hunt me down and give me a kick.  (Please don't kick me too hard.)

I wrote around 1,200 words, and then started replaying Dragon Age 2.  I have edited several lines several times however (yes I know...), and at least did make a couple of things a bit clearer.  My main character is not in the best situation ever at this point in the story and my brain, my fingers or my heart (I'm not sure which, it might be all three) is/are rebelling at what is going to happen.

Kirill's life is about to become difficult and although things will get better afterwards, I'm stuck at my last line: "Everything was as it should be."  Something in my head illogically insists that if I leave it there, the bad stuff won't happen.  Of course, if I leave it there the good stuff won't happen either and my main character will be trapped in an awful limbo, believing something terrible has happened to the man he's fallen in love with without anything ever being proved or disproved.

Which, I think we can all agree, is a Bad Thing.

And, although I have no direct evidence to show for it, I'm starting to feel more confident in the relationship between Kirill and Niko.  An important part to my characters for me--although it may sound a bit odd--is how they interact in my head when I'm not thinking much about them; for instance, Alex and Milos have a near-constant stream of bickering that occasionally leads to sex that crops up at the strangest times.  For quite a while I'd had absolutely nothing from Kirill and Niko, which was concerning.  And then I accidentally wrote fluffy almost-smut based on nothing more than a scene prompt and realised that actually they do get along.  And then an actual sex-scene occurred in my head--I've not gotten around to writing it down yet--and suddenly I'm feeling a lot happier about the whole thing.

But at least my Dragon Age replay has been going quite well...  In some ways I can consider it research, because at some point last year I started hearing my character Alex's voice as Gideon Emery's (the voice of Fenris).  Make it slightly softer and more Midlands-English and it's a perfect fit for him, so I'm topping up my memories.

See?  It's not all bad.

(As an aside, I'm 30 today.  So at least for today I hope I have an excuse for not writing!)