Progress, such as it is

[indri]

I am struggling rather a lot with the Cockney. I just don't know how to do it so I may stop trying: I'd rather have Dru's relatives sounding like characters from a Jane Austen novel than ones from Mary Poppins.

Also, I can't make pre-death Dru sufficiently religious. I can do some kinds of religious -- Calvinism, no problem -- but not High Church/Catholic. I could possibly learn to fake it rather better, but it won't be in this story. Too many balls in the air already.

And I'm starting to doubt that the piece will be finished by the ficathon deadline. The bulk of it's there, but I'm still missing the Key Scene and much of the linking work. I have lots of these little icebergs floating away from each other that need to be tacked together securely. I'm already a bit disturbed by how much material I've had to discard, even though I've been able to re-use some phrases and ideas elsewhere.

For example, last year I read up on doll manufacture. I learnt who made the best dolls in London and by what techniques. All useless in the end, no need for a doll workshop this time -- too twee. Should have realised that earlier.

If I weren't so close to seeing the end of this, I'd be tempted just to extract a bunch of scenes and call them "Random moments of Spike and Dru". Those bits are easy to write. I'm finding that if I start my working day writing a "random moment" then I can progress to working on the more difficult bits of the main plotlines. Not all of the random bits may work inside the main story, so I may publish those separately, as they're pretty self-contained.

At least I'm not in the pit of thinking that it's all awful; instead I'm in the rather more sane position of thinking that, while I'm giving it a good go, a better writer than I would be doing a rather better job. Oh well, it's all in the process of learning to become that better writer.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

I have nothing intelligent to say because I'm brain dead, so I do numbered list point:

1. I would love to read the random bits left over
2. I would hate you to feel you were rushing this fic just for the Lynnevitational deadline.
3. You could put the random bits in as your Lynnevitational entry.
4. I seriously doubt it is awful. You are a very good writer.

[indri]

1. I must certainly do something with them. It would be a pity to bin them. And I am likewise looking forward to reading your Butterfly Catcher offcuts once I'm done with this piece.

2. But remember the story of the writer and the man with the gun? The deadline is forcing me to do some work, even if it may not necessarily mean that I finish on time.

3. True -- as long as I know by then which bits weren't going to make it into the final version. Let's hope that I know that much.

4. It is not awful; it is just never as good as one hoped. And thank you.

I'm brain dead

I hope you recover swiftly from your unfortunate ailment.

[caira.livejournal.com]

My sympathies. The room I usually write in usually has a genuine brick wall to bang my head against in these moments. My wife won't let me use it anymore, though... ;o)

[indri]

I think the padded cell must be the optimal solution for this sort of frustration ;)

[caira.livejournal.com]

You're a closet Daria fan, aren't you? ;o)

[avidrosette.livejournal.com]

I am struggling rather a lot with the Cockney

For what it's worth, I find it difficult to read a lot of dialog that's very heavily rendered into phonetic dialect. Maybe just changing a few words here and there would be enough to convey the flavor of the characters' speech without bogging down reader and writer alike in trying to sound it out? I think Mark Twain gave a few paragraphs of dialect in one of his books, and then came out and said something along the lines of "And now you're going to have imagine them talking that way for the rest of the story, 'cause I'm not going to try your patience by writing it out thick and heavy." Anyway, just a thought. Good luck with the writing.

[indri]

Oh, I'm avoiding phonetic spellings. They're hell on both writer and reader. I did manage to get through Feersum Endjinn OK, but that's written in my native Lowland Scots.

It's much easier for me when I'm writing Scots, because I have a good feel for the rhythms of speech and the small regional differences in grammar and vocabulary. That's what I'd like to convey with Cockney, but I can't seem to hold the accent in my head well enough. When I try to get my characters to slip into a less formal English, the default is the way my granny spoke. And unforunately in this instance, she was from Stirlingshire and not London's East End.

Mark Twain gave a few paragraphs of dialect in one of his books, and then came out and said something along the lines of "And now you're going to have imagine them talking that way for the rest of the story, 'cause I'm not going to try your patience by writing it out

I think Bernard Shaw says much the same thing in Pygmalion! Eliza's Cockney accent had to be imagined after a few pages.

Actually, that gives me an idea -- I should look at Pygmalion, that might help. Thank you!

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

The thing that always bugged me about Dru and the Cockney was when we see her with her family before Angelus turns her -- well, she seemed to belong to a higher caste than the accent would indicate, no? I always found this confusing.

I hope your writing struggles ease.

[indri]

she seemed to belong to a higher caste than the accent would indicate, no? I always found this confusing.

Yes and you're not the only one. I am fudging that as well I can.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

I always assumed that Dru's family were some variety of newly-rich, or at least newly-prosperous.

[indri]

That's the only plausible explanation, otherwise that accent would have been educated out of her.

[rahirah]

Well, if you make it through the first draft, by the time you get to the second draft you will be a better writer, and therefore quod erat thingummy.

I have a whole huge file of things that didn't work in stories, but which I couldn't bear to get rid of, ranging from sentences to entire scenes. I always tell myself I'll do something with them someday...

[hobbituk.livejournal.com]

I found your LJ randomly, and now intend to read your fic!
I just wanted to thank you for giving up on the cockney speak... now if only you could persuade all the other writers who do it to stop, too!

I find it really distracting to read all the phonetic stuff. Especially since they invariably use the wrong words too. Even the writers from the show! (Get bent? WTF was that all about???)

And my last whinge on the matter. Spike was not Cockney. Nuh uh. None of his speech patterns matched cockney. He was more like a North London wideboy at a pinch. With lots of transatlantic crossover. (Ass???)