Work still has a pretty firm hold over both my brain and my time, but it turned out to be quite a relief to finish chapter 5 of The Reconstruction of Kirill. I was starting to think it'd never happen... Of course, now I'm on chapter 6 and there are all the others stretching out into my future so it was quite a short-lived relief.
Thank gods I actually planned this story out properly. If I'd got a half-plan or decided to wing it I'd be struggling in the motivation department right now--although in my case, planning carries with it its own set of problems, like actually feeling like writing it when it already exists as outlined chapters. There are so few surprises waiting in store when it's planned out, though it has actually managed two so far so there's still hope! And chapter 6 brings with it the promise of smut so there's that to look forward to, though that brings its own issues: mostly that if there's anything The Destruction of Kirill and last year's NaNo taught me, it's that I can get very wordy when it comes to sex. (Not a problem I had with the year before's NaNo; that was frequency instead. I could barely prise them apart.)
And just to add insult to injury, I've picked up a ridiculous cough from somewhere. Joy. I prescribe myself lots of Johnny Flynn music, which is both the aural equivalent of wrapping myself in a warm blanket and is horribly inspiring while I'm at it. One of his songs inspired The Reconstruction of Kirill in its entirety, another has given me a plot bunny for a short story that I'm desperately trying to ignore, and I'm pretty sure the others are just laying in wait for me at this point.
Music is a dangerous, dangerous thing when it comes to inspiration...
WiPpet Wednesday
My WiPpet maths is still not up to muster (as any and all of my maths teachers will attest) so it's still all kinds of simple. It's the 21st January 2015 - 21/1/2015 - so it's 8 lines from page 3 of the first chapter of The Reconstruction of Kirill (yes, you get pseudo-steampunk again today). Because--wait for it--2+1=3, 1=1, 2+0+1+5=8.
It makes sense in some world. Honest.
When we left our heroes, Niko was teaching Kirill to swordfight and now the inevitable has happened: Kirill picked up a nick. And Niko has his own ways of curing minor wounds... (And again, first draft so... yeah, messy.)
Niko is very, very easily distracted, it would appear...“Nonsense.” Niko’s head dipped, and the press of his lips to the scratch sent another spark of electricity the length of Kirill’s spine. “Does that feel better?”Kirill nodded, light headed, and Niko grinned wickedly up at him before kissing his chest again, this time much nearer the nipple than the wound. He should object, this wasn’t going to teach him any faster, but how could he when it felt so good? Then Niko’s tongue grazed over the tender pink nub and any thought of protestation dried up.It didn’t take long for both their shirts to hit the floor and for Niko’s hungry mouth to cover his own, hands resting on his narrow hips and sliding now and again beneath the waistband. A shiver ran across his shoulders that had nothing to do with the warm air; a year ago he’d never thought this could feel so nice and yet here he was, sensitive beyond belief beneath Niko’s touch.
Hoooooooot. I should probably say something more intelligent than that. But. Hooooooooot. Also, I love the names Niko and Kirill. So. More hot.
ReplyDeleteHaha, glad you like their names. Kirill actually named himself. I spent three days solid trying to rename him then gave in. A friend named Niko when I got stuck and I think it suits him... As to more hot... well, I'm supposed to be writing *that* now. When my brain co-operates...
DeleteYour WIPpet math is actually fairly standard. I think most of us come up with a snippet and then try to make the date fit it, no matter how much mathematical manipulation it takes. :)
ReplyDeleteNice snippet!
I agree with you about motivation--I'm learning that planning things out makes it so much easier to stay motivated.
I actually managed to fail GCSE maths and carefully dropped out of my retakes... Eheh. I am not a math-brained person, particularly not when work spends an unfortunate amount of time nomming my thoughts, so I'm pretty happy it's come across as pretty standard. That's a surprising relief, haha.
DeleteOne day I'll find out what the happy medium between overplotting and overpantsing is. How deeply do you plan? Do you outline, or do you end up with exhaustive chapter summaries?
Did it get warm in here ;-) Nice!!!
ReplyDeleteHaha, thank you! :D
DeleteNow, see, if I were Kirill, I'd have to make Niko pay for the distraction -and then, soothe his hurt feelings, of course.
ReplyDeleteI used to pants; now I use open-ended plotting. Only, the Vulcans tend to do what they deem -uh, logical. Especially T'Pol. She's got this habit of changing the plot literally in the middle of a sentence. Not a little bit, either - that woman goes for head-scratching, what the blank am I gonna do NOW totality!
I hope your cough doesn't wreck the smutty delights of Chapter 6!
Bless him, Kirill's a bit too shy for that right now--though I'm hoping by the end of the story he'll be a lot more confident and able to take the lead a little more. ;)
DeleteOpen-ended plotting sounds good, like the perfect compromise between the two. Of course, that does assume the characters don't simply run off with the story like T'Pol seems to enjoy doing to you!
:) Thanks for the good wishes, though it's unfortunately succeeded so far. It's hard to get into a smutty mood when my throat is shredded. I've had to pause a while or it'll simply turn into Niko and Kir discussing engineering instead. Not really all that erotic, even for devoted engineers!
First, may I commend you on your excellent WIPpet math. It made my head explode. That means it was done well.
ReplyDeleteVery steamy excerpt. That, or I nudged the thermostat up higher than I meant to. ;) Zow. The things a little innocent swordplay can lead to...
I'm a pantser that plots her way out of problems. *sigh* I begin writing, characters take hold, throw a situation at me, and then we try to figure out what to do next. It works. Sometimes.
LOL thank you, I know the feeling. I look at some of the impressive maths others manage and I just stare in admiration, haha. Though I have only today realised that there are such things as subtraction, multiplication and division as well! ...Horrifying thought.
DeleteThat's the thing with swordplay: sometimes it can lead to a little *cough* /swordplay/... haha. (What am I? 12? :p )
Seems like a good fun way to work. I think the only reason I got this plotted out fairly easily was because it came hot on the heels of finishing the previous one, so I knew pretty well what everyone would do. It's not stopped another character from turning up unexpectedly, mind. I suspect that if your characters take hold like that and throw situations at you, then it means you've got good, well-rounded and wholly realistic characters. (That also enjoy torturing you. ;) )