I really turned myself inside out while writing yesterday.
It's interesting; I notice myself narrating much more in this story than any other I've written. I'm a firm believer in letting the reader live it, as opposed to listening to me tell it, if you know what I mean.
But this story has so many complex emotions going on that I must narrate for the reader, in order to help guide them through. The emotions and the actions of my characters, especially when it concerns Gilly, can be contradictory. So if I merely showed what Gilly was doing, and did not explain what she was thinking and feeling at the same time, the reader would miss the whole point.
I have, by now, a great deal of confidence in my descriptive ability; I am a highly descriptive writer. I have less confidence in my narrative voice. Though, come to think of it, that's all I do when I'm blogging, so it's not as though I lack experience.
I think it was just that those last few scenes I worked on so challenged me emotionally that I had no energy left over to focus on the words I was using. After a little bit, I'll go back and rewrite it; try to give it some nuance and rhythm.
Today I began researching India. Here's the tentative plan: they will sail up the eastern coast of India, to Calcutta, and then further along the Ganges river, until they reach the Kosi river, a tributary. The Kosi river goes up to the Mt Everest region.
There will be some difficulty at Calcutta; I don't know to what degree. I'm not sure yet how strong the corrupt daemon of that territory will be, when I begin to write him out.
It's interesting, because the Ganges river is one of the most polluted in the world, filled with the ashes of the cremated and fecal matter. It's also considered to be the junction between earth, heaven and hell, and to be the consort of various gods.
This stirs my imagination, though in what ways exactly, I don't yet know. It's just sort of brewing away in the back of my mind. Will the river have a personification? Perhaps a filth smeared unholy eyed goddess with riverweed in her hair and six arms with painted, hooked nails?
I did sort of figure that hills, streams and mountains would have their corresponding spirit personifications, but I was leaning toward them all being inherently good, sort of alone the lines of "the rivers clap and the hills are joyful."
But what if some of the actual features of the landscape are corrupt as well, in the spirit realm? But why? Would that have any correlation to the human actions in that area, or would it be the free will of the hill or river that would determine its moral standing? (Heh. What a question to ponder!)
Anyway, trouble will arise on the Ganges, whether from the river itself or its denizens, I do not yet know; somehow, trouble will come.
The fact of the matter is, Tenshio is a powerhouse and few creatures can stand toe to toe with him, though no one really knows it yet. At the moment, he's just this quiet, formally speaking creature with strange eyes and a tendency to get sea sick. But, I can feel free to throw some major players at him, especially when backed up by the crew of the Unabara Maru, Lord Fushi and the husky.
That is a formidable group, right there. I might actually need the Ganges itself to rise up against them, in order to present them with any kind of challenge at all. In the mountains, they might meet up with Yeti. Maybe. Only they will be like the Kringmerk; uncorrupted.
In other news, I went on a shopping trip today. Holy cow. How much stuff can just two people consume? Unending stuff, it what the answer would look like, if you had happened to see my shopping cart as I valiantly shoved its towering heights through the parking lot this morning.
I'm almost afraid to imagine what the cart would look like if we did have children. I'd have to go every single week, or go on the weekend, so Keith and I could both push a cart.
Our pool was growing algae, a lovely green algae. This green was showing up on the straps of my bikini; I wondered what was making it turn green like that. No one came to check on the pool for three weeks and we've had several heavy rainstorms, so it was reverting back to a state of nature. I saw fireflies dancing out there last night.
