Sunday, December 28, 2008

Writing Feverishly--

literally.

The nasty cold that has taken possession of nearly everyone in town this holiday season has been struggling to find a foothold in me since before Christmas. This is strangely good news in a way. It means those vitamins I've been taking (regularly without being reminded for once) have paid off. After years of working with other people's kids and waiting for that fabled "immunity with frequent exposure" to kick in, I've finally faced the fact that it's not going to happen to me. But I'll take being last, or not getting it as badly as an alternative.

Illness was a good excuse to withdraw from household responsibilities. Gary's making chili (for the first time), the boys are still playing with their Christmas toys. So I withdrew to my room with my old laptop and some Theraflu to type "The End" on Willows Blood. I found room for one more plot twist (needed it to pace this thing right) and am about to be a lot more satisfied with it. I'm trying to leave room for a third book without leaving too many important questions unanswered.

You writers out there will probably identify with this: Have you ever had a secondary character that you liked almost more than your MC? Almost cheering when you get to write them into the scene?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The bug has hit down here, too. It went through schools and families while I remained healthy. I succumbed a few days before Christmas. Nowhere near as bad as everyone else (there's that immunity thing) but still, enough to make me feel blergh. Yay for your writing, the end is nigh!

Ray Veen said...

Secondary characters. In a way, the fact that you don't have as much pressure to flesh them out makes them more fun to write. The same goes for villians and stereotypes.

My two pennies.

Debby said...

Nothing worse than being sick at the holidays.

Adding my 'yay!' to the book ending.

Scotty said...

Hope you guys are all feeling better soon.

Secondary character? Heh, haven't ever had a primary character really except for Axel Moonbeam in that faux-comedy piece I tried writing some years back...

:-)

Mary O. Paddock said...

RH--Thanks!

Ray--Very true. All their background inf can be implied or left unexplained. In this case, the secondary characters are almost comic relief which is why I like them so much.

Debby--Very true.

Scotty-Thanks. So when are you going to write another one?