Spent way too much time pondering whether the bird in the pines is a Clark’s Nutcracker or a Stellar Jay. Do I want a grating kraak kraak kraak krak, or a more talkative twitting sequence of variable notes?
For this scene, grating. Nutcracker it is.
Tag Archives: Mt. Shasta
Progrep 22: Bird Brain
Posted in Writing
Tagged bird call, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing
Progrep 21: Heated Discussion
The characters have started raising their voices at one another: conflict over What to Do about It. Maybe I shouldn’t have fed them pizza.
Posted in Writing
Tagged character conflict, conflict, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing
Progrep 20: Twitch and Chat
Sometimes it seems as if my characters are just one big mass of body language and dialogue, twitching and chatting their way from scene to scene. Things happen, and they flock together to talk about it. More things happen, and they talk about that, too. And they twitch.
Nod, smile, laugh, cough, hem, haw, choke. Clear throat, raise brow, lift leg, slap. Throw glance, toss head, push bangs, wail. Flush face, cry tears, bend back, pull.
Lord almighty, stop!
Posted in Writing
Tagged body language, dialogue, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing
Progrep 19: Timeline
Today I spent time on time! Events in the novel are taking place at a rapid pace, which I hadn’t anticipated but quite like. I’m needing to double-check the timeline, to make sure it all makes sense.
Posted in Writing
Tagged Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, pacing, science fiction, Shasta, timeline, writing
Progrep 18: Reshuffle and Reveal
The current novel stems from a short story I published several years back titled “Liminal Eyes.” That short story, minus its final scene, is now the first chapter of the novel. Today I used the short story’s final scene as a flashback at the end of chapter six: Trish has now told Spencer that she’s seen the eyes.
Cue ominous music.
Posted in Writing
Tagged Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Liminal Eyes, Mt. Shasta, novel, science fiction, Shasta, short story, writing
Progrep 16: Death-Day Anniversary
I realized that it’s been a year since Steve’s death. That anniversary adds another layer to events–more agony, more unraveling threads.
Posted in Writing
Tagged anniversary of death, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing
Progrep 15: Premature Edit
Every morning, I reread the previous day’s writing, which helps me keep heading in the right direction, but in the process of rereading, I find that I’m editing–tweaking sentences for rhythm and so on. I know better than to do sentence-level editing in a first draft, but I end up doing it anyway. That’s slowing me down.
Posted in Writing
Tagged editing, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing
Progrep 14: Bone Gone
Uh oh. Five-year-old Kyle has walked off with one of the dog bones to bury it “someplace nice.”
Posted in Writing
Tagged dog, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, kid behavior, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing
Clarion West Write-a-thon
During the next six weeks, I will be participating in the Clarion West Write-a-thon, working on Eyes on the Mountain, the novel whose progress I’ve been reporting on in this blog. You can sponsor me, if you’d like. For info, or just to read the first scene of the novel, visit http://www.clarionwest.org/members/carolynhill/ .
Posted in Writing
Tagged Clarion West, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, write-a-thon, writing
Progrep 13: By the Grave
Spencer dug up the dog today. It’s a scene I’ve been driving to get to for over a week. Got there. Sad.
Dug deep.
Posted in Writing
Tagged emotion, Eyes on the Mountain, fantasy, Mt. Shasta, science fiction, Shasta, writing