Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to revise I go

[pbray]

Last night felt extremely weird. I'd deliberately decided to take the night off, so I wasn't writing, nor was I even thinking of what to write next. Instead I watched The Replacement Killers on cable.

Now the mini-vacation is over, and it's time to start revisions. This book was written in a couple of distinct chunks, the first of which made up the proposal sent to Bantam. Then there is the rest of the book which was written after the proposal was accepted. There's a visible seam between the two chunks where I need to do some blending, as characters and motivations morphed slightly between my original conception of them, and how they developed over the course of the story. Not a problem, just routine cleanup.

But it's the little things that drive me crazy, also known as


What was I thinking?
(self-mocking on)

At the beginning of the story one of the cultures is referred to as the People of the Sea or alternatively the Sea People. Why did I think this was a good name? Are they the deadly enemies of the Land People (who would naturally be divided into the People of the Hills and the People of the Plains)? Yeah, we get that the People of the Sea are probably pretty knowledgeable when it comes to ships, but do we have to beat the reader over the head with this detail?

Later I decided the official name of that culture was the Federated Islands of Seddon (accent on second syllable), also known as the Federation of Seddon or the Seddon Federation. A slightly more interesting name, although since Ikaria is an empire, this sets up conversations about Federation versus Empire which sounds like a Star Trek spinoff. But moving right along, what the heck do I call the people of Seddon? Are the Seddonians? Seddonites? Seddoners? Federales?

And these are just the issues of the first few chapters....
(self-mocking off)

Time to fashion a stick with which to beat this manuscript into submission.

Comments

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Seddonians, definitely. Has a nice ring to it.

Good luck with the revisions!

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

I think, as a group, you called them traders. Like, they had no cultural identity beyond their jobs.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yes, but is this a good thing? Or do they need another identity beyond traders?

Maybe I'll just divide them into good guys / bad guys / morally ambiguous guys. Then further subcategories of "pretty/useful" and "troll/useless".

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Instead I watched The Replacement Killers on cable.

I love that movie. I'd like it anyway because Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun Fat both rock, but the airport scene at the end is one of my all-time favorite film endings ever. :)

And I vote for Seddonians, too. It has a nice ring to it. :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

One of the best movies ever, yes. Chow Yun Fat was gorgeous :-)

[jlawrenceperry.livejournal.com]

"These Federation types are cowards. The negotiations will be short."

Sorry. Got Qui-Gon in the avatar, gotta go with it.

Probably Seddonians is best, it accents the right syllables automatically.