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I suspect part of my problem is that I'm not sure how to get my characters--most of whom I do like--to a place that I'd want to be, or that I think they would want to be. (Okay, romance and NRE can do a lot for anyone's opinion of the world, so my main characters could wind up content despite it all.) This idea was sparked by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pameladean mentioning that when they created Liavek, it had to be a place they would want to live.
My characters are sitting in New York City in October 2001. Depending on how the plot turns, they're likely to be doing something of an alternate universe, but it's departing from a recent here and now. And I'm sitting in New York City in March 2003, and not sure how to rewind the film and set them on a different turning. In one sense, okay, it's an alien contact novel, and that would have to change things--but in what ways and how? Shall I try wish-fulfillment and have the aliens kidnap Bush and Cheney and implant chips in them that make them nicer people, or something? And what would happen if those guys did have major changes of heart--whether genuine crisis of conscience, or effects of a stroke, or such?
Maybe I should set this aside and set something well in the past, or far enough in the future that I don't have to worry that the headlines will make it obsolete in annoying ways before I finish the first draft.
I feel like rambling about Neanderthals, who lived in our homes before us but don't seem to have been our ancestors. But that's laboring under the multi-ton shadow of all of Jean Auel's bestsellers. Oh, well, if I can write a romantic plot between intelligent adults after Pride and Prejudice, Auel shouldn't be a problem.
pameladean mentioning that when they created Liavek, it had to be a place they would want to live.My characters are sitting in New York City in October 2001. Depending on how the plot turns, they're likely to be doing something of an alternate universe, but it's departing from a recent here and now. And I'm sitting in New York City in March 2003, and not sure how to rewind the film and set them on a different turning. In one sense, okay, it's an alien contact novel, and that would have to change things--but in what ways and how? Shall I try wish-fulfillment and have the aliens kidnap Bush and Cheney and implant chips in them that make them nicer people, or something? And what would happen if those guys did have major changes of heart--whether genuine crisis of conscience, or effects of a stroke, or such?
Maybe I should set this aside and set something well in the past, or far enough in the future that I don't have to worry that the headlines will make it obsolete in annoying ways before I finish the first draft.
I feel like rambling about Neanderthals, who lived in our homes before us but don't seem to have been our ancestors. But that's laboring under the multi-ton shadow of all of Jean Auel's bestsellers. Oh, well, if I can write a romantic plot between intelligent adults after Pride and Prejudice, Auel shouldn't be a problem.
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As you might imagine, I've been stuck there for a while.
Neanderthals. *What* a good idea.
Or maybe a story set on pre-moon Earth.