Return of the WIPpeteer

Hi all, hope you all had a lovely Christmas or holiday period and a great start to the New Years. I decided, as both Christmas day and  New Years were on Wednesday to give WIPpet a break but I kept busy with my new review series with book reviews on John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars amongst others as well as the somewhat obligatory New Year’s post where I discussed my plans for the year and the value of impulsive resolutions.

Before we head into the usually WIPpety goodness I have a few updates and tidbits.

Revisiting the draft of Queen of Hearts, I finally worked our what needs to be done to progress it to the next level and began to add those elements in. It was great to be back amongst my oldest characters as well as meeting some new players. The story really feels like it is beginning to develop into a more complex thing which is really exciting and once I’ve finished straightening out scenes and subplots I can focus on the wording, grammar and hideous amounts of adverbs.

I also came to the realisation that Rebellion Rising, which I spent probably three or four months getting to the stage it was at before I abandoned it is down on word count by almost 10,000 words compared to my NaNo project. This in turn made me realise tow other things; that I could finish it before I head back to uni in two months if I really wanted to and that it may not have enough content to support another 50-60,000 words. Which leaves me with a dilemma: to let it run its course and be left with a weirdly sized piece which then needs super editing an inserted subplots galore or begin rewriting before I go any further and hopefully save myself some time later. Rebellion was the first novel I attempted to write chronologically, start to finish. With Queen I wrote each scene as it came to me, haphazardly and regardless of the order of scenes. I still cannot comment on which method has worked better but I attribute my inability to find an appropriate ending for Queen to the fact that initially there was no plot, only the documentation of the characters lives. So we will see.

Anyway, onto the agenda of the day. Because it is the 8th of January, here is 112 words (8 x 14) from Chapter 1 of Queen of Hearts. Kara has snuck out of the palace, with her cousin Tiemil, to visit the slave markets. There is a strong slave trade in Fariel and it forms the basis of the country’s economy now that the Empire has expanded so far the most of the country’s traditional trade partners are no longer. Slaves from neighbouring Bashraan are plentiful in the Farilien slave markets due to a) proximity and b) the historic enmity between the two countries which ensures a steady flow of prisoners of war sold to slavery. The desire of Fariliens to subjugate their enemy ensures high demand for Bashraani slaves.

Kara scanned the line. One slave in particular caught her eye. He was tall, strong and his eyes could not hide his pride.

The other buyers ignored him in favor of tamer candidates. Warily, Kara approached him. He glared at her, lashing out against the ropes which held him. She skipped away. He snarled.

‘You look stuck.’ She whispered in fluent Bashraani.

He hid surprise at the sound of his language behind caustic anger, ‘Whatever gives you that idea?’

‘I can help you.’

‘I’ve heard that before. What will you promise? An easy job? Food? Kindness?’

‘Freedom.’ The elusive word floated from her lips to land in his ears with golden promise.