On Picking Up Threads and Pieces

Well, after a day or two of thinking over the novel and wading through a cast of about thirty, I have divided my story into three main themes, and parred number of characters down to twenty-two. Don't get me wrong - it broke my heart to do that. Some of those characters have been in the since before I knew the story. But it was necessary. While the plot still remains a bit of a mystery to me, I have plenty of threads because of the overlapping themes. The idea to try the three themes came from a little book called Chapter After Chapter, thanks to Dr. V.

The two other science fiction short stories are coming along, evolving slowly, but steadily. All I can tell you is that one has something to do with a young man named Yuri, going faster than the speed of light, and madness. The other involves a young woman trying to find her way back to earth once we move out of our Solar system and lose our roots in the vastness of space. No titles exist yet, but I'm still running the ideas around in my head.

Last note on writing: my dear friend from Virginia called me tonight and we discussed her long-running novel. Mainly we talked about how she could restart the project by changing her point-of-view and narration styles. It was a fascinating chat about the actual technicalities of writing - why an author would use first person over third, or why a writer would show a certain scene from a certain character's perspective. It's been so long since I've had one of these conversations, I was terribly engrossed. Much fun was had by all.

On to much more light hearted subjects.

Comics:
DC's Countdown #51 just about blew my socks off. It was so much fun. Written by Paul Dini (the guy who wrote Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, Justice League, and JLU for a mazillion years) is the head writer of this series. The story they've set up looks great.

Battlestar Galactica (yes, it gets its own section):
I started watching Battlestar Galactica again, and that first season is just about enough to make your head explode. One of the things I noticed was that the writers began all the major plot lines of the next three seasons in that first episode. Pretty impressive.

So say we all.
Bri