In which she fixes an accessory blunder

[zeborah]

I had been uncomfortably aware for a while that it made no sense to give Ermegård a necklace with a pendant to be worn under her partlet: the fashion was for chains - sans pendants of any description - to be worn on the outside of one's clothes. But I needed that pendant for the plot and...

...in the writing of it made it small enough that I just now realised it'll fit on a ring instead. *Rings* are in fashion, rings galore -- not quite as flashy as this, but almost, and the Spider won't notice even if Mikkel Ahlefeldt would have.

This will involve some rewriting (eg it will no longer be able to be looped around the Spider's belt) but has bonus symbolism attached.

[I post this here because I'm convinced that if I posted it on rasfc someone would think that I was asking them to solve my problem, and would tell me that it was perfectly okay to write in a pendant if I wanted to. <head-desk> ]

Comments

[zeborah]

Post-rewrite, other bonuses of the accessory fix include:

a) the conversation and internal monologue is more meaningful;
b) the motivation is smoother;
c) the sex scene is sexier;
d) the discovery of the chapter's plot token involves a certain Ambitious Spear-carrier more closely;
e) the Spider manages to handle said plot token with greater subtlety;
f) I got to delete a short (<1page) scene because it was no longer necessary and won't have to write another short scene because that's no longer necessary either, which saves me words for more important stuff.

On the minus side:
a) I had to remove a reference to Potiphar's wife. Well, I didn't have to, but it wasn't so firmly integrated any more;
b) pursuant to f) above, I won't actually bother with the added bonus symbolism I mentioned in my original post.

All by changing a necklace to a ring. <blinks happily>

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

That sounds like fantastic progress. (And I'm hoping to read it when you're finished.)

[zeborah]

Have you read the first Scandinavian Novel? I've lost track. It'd make sense to read that first, anyway, and I could send it to you straight away if you like.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

if I posted it on rasfc someone would think that I was asking them to solve my problem

*Chuckle!*

This sort of reflection is what I think blogs and LJ do really well. It's easy to get fixated on something having to be the way you (generic "you") first envisioned it and, in the worst case scenario, the whole story can stall or fall apart because of that. Seeing another writer make that leap helps remind me that if I'm beating my head against an apparent brick wall, just a small change can sometimes do the trick.

And if you lose some Cool Stuff there will be other Cool Stuff that wasn't possible before.

[zeborah]

Yes! Actually it occurs to me that it'd be an interesting exercise to take a random scene and pick a random detail and change it, just to see what happens; one can always change it back if it turns out to be worse. But until I actually wrote this change in I had no idea it'd affect so many things.

[jamesandbluejay.livejournal.com]

In a way, it's like trying to learn how to ride a horse; a casual move (such as mentioning a problem you are wrestling with, or, in the case of the horse, turning to say something to a riding companion) evokes a response from the horse (or other writers who hear that you are wrestling with something and want to join in somehow, even if it is wrong).

There. That should be positively convoluted. (insert vacuous grin at this point. I'm wrestling with stuff too, but I don't want to have to join the WWF [That's the World Wresting Federation, a bunch of muscle bound actors who perform sweatily and bloodily on TV in what they claim to be entertainment].

Anyhow, I feel for ya with the furor over the 'reluctant torturer' on rafsc. All sorts of similes spring to mind -- B'rer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, for one.

James

[zeborah]

When I'm done sulking I'll probably repost all this to rasfc after all because I think it's fascinating that such a small change could have so many different effects.