End of Day 10 / Start of 11

23,530 words at the moment. I'm way behind where I need to be for a 100k month. On the other hand, the stuff I'm writing for Triangle II is outstanding.

Back when I first made Thomas for the IM game in 2002, I tried to write his story as a novel. It involved his great-granddaughter Janis coming into the swamps to bring him out, and him telling her his story. Well, I got about four pages into it. It was the best writing I could do at the time, and I really liked it - but the GM of the IM game that inspired Thomas's existence didn't, which basically stalled me out on the whole thing. It probably isn't very well-written either, I'm afraid to go back and look right now...

Anyway, here in 2010, after an enormous amount of continued character, setting, and plot development on all of Fortress Launne, I've gone all the way back around and now that whole thing is completely rearranged and a part of Triangle II. What I wrote on Day 7 was the first part. At the end of that scene - with one pivotal sentence from Janis - was when Aliacorba transitioned into Thomas Cougar.

And tonight I finished the transition. At the beginning of the chapter I was still calling him Aliacorba, because that was his name - but it didn't feel right to write it that way anymore. I wanted to write "Thomas" instead. But it wasn't his name until the middle, where he actually picked it out.

And now I'm like ... wow. I did it. And it's right. It worked.

To put icing on the cake, somewhere in the middle of the scene, I also worked out how exactly to continue forward in Triangle I. I'd stalled out on how exactly Antoine was going to get to Frank, managed to write that yesterday (they went back and forth across town in a carriage together, and I figure maybe there was something about the air in the carriage - I never spelled it out and don't really intend to). Then I wasn't sure how exactly to carry out the next part, where Nathaniel finds out about it, Frank gets looked over in detail and diagnosed, etc.

Well. Here we have this legend about Aliacorba the medicine man made immortal by the gods. And I need to mention this legend elsewhere, because so far I have Edward where he's just a normal regular guy, and then I have Triangle II where he's back to being just a normal regular guy, who's going to believe me about there being a legend if it's never on-stage?

Thus: mention the legend in Triangle I - which is the only novel I have in between those two. In particular: the Stranahans are going to fail to figure out how to cure Frank via standard Aunlanian medicine, so Frank goes to ask the native folk, whose legend it is. They then diagnose him, all the while talking about the legend, and voila, two problems solved! And furthermore, Frank can run into Allen in the woods while they're passing each other on separate agendas, Allen can get a close look at Frank too, which is how Nathaniel would find out about it. Third problem also solved!

So that's what I'll be writing next. :)