(no subject)

[eighthphase]

In the ongoing saga of "Oh my god shut up about that stupid story" I finished my re-read of draft one today and realised that I did not know what the hell I was doing with Barton. Or, rather, I was trying to do two mutually exclusive things simultaneously with him. I even vaguely recall thinking about it while I was writing, but once I was writing those parts I never really went back and reread his intro, so I don't even know. It basically boils down to timeline troubles, like so:

I originally described Barton as looking middle-aged. This made sense at the time, because I figured, "well, he's in his mid-forties, isn't he?" Well, yes, he should be. Except that he died twenty years ago, when he was in his mid-twenties. So he's dead! His ghost shouldn't age; ghosts don't work like that. (I mean, I guess they could, if I wanted them to, but I think Barton will be more interesting if they don't.) So he actually shouldn't look all that much older than Estelle, who is twenty.

I ended up writing the entire first draft with the mental image of him in his forties (and also in pseudo-Regency dress, man I don't even know why actually that's a lie I know exactly why but it's kind of dumb so nevermind), and I think his character suffered for that. At the same time, I've had a whole four extra months to think about things like this, so I suppose it makes sense. ...of course, I think I also wrote the entire first draft with his main characterisation being 'total ass' except then suddenly changing around the time Estelle almost gets killed and I'm pretty sure his character suffered for that, too. (Spoilers: Estelle almost gets killed in act two.)

Also, I was working on outlining during astronomy today (bad Azu; I should pay attention) and I realised that the beginning of act one is really fucking boring. But it's necessary! I have to establish the status quo before I can disrupt it entirely! And I can't write a book that takes place in a magic school without actually writing about magic school, that would be dumb. And it's not like the first plot twist doesn't happen like a month in-story anyway... and then it starts getting interesting! And then Barton shows up!

I didn't actually like Barton all that much in the first draft - as a character, while I was writing it, I mean. He felt like an obstacle Estelle needed to overcome, rather than an actual person. Admittedly, writing him as if he were just a voice in Estelle's head, from a point of view where we weren't really in Estelle's head, probably didn't help with fleshing out his character. I think the first-person point of view will let me present him in a much more interesting way.

Actually, after doing the re-read I'm remembering a lot of things I could have made use of but didn't. Right now most of them have to do with Barton; I'm not really sure why. I guess that's just how it is. It's not like his character isn't interesting, but I wasn't really taking advantage of it. I was trying, I think, to write Estelle's story; I only really paid attention to Barton when he was important in her story specifically. But he's got some interesting character bits that I can play off of her, since she's the narrator and he's in her head: he's a lot more serious than she is; he's got a need for revenge, since he and his wife were killed by the Magic Mafia; he's supposed to be a kind of mentor character, but he's not actually all that much older than Estelle, which is painfully obvious for the first part of his character arc; he's been pretty much sealed in a pendant for the last twenty years, so his understanding of the modern world is pretty shaky; and he has this idea in his head of who Estelle should have been that really doesn't match up with who she is, so he has to somehow reconcile the two. There's a lot I can do with that.

I actually feel like his best scene, right now, is near the end of his character arc, which kind of makes me sad because a cool guy like him should have a lot of really awesome scenes. Which reminds me that I need to figure out a way to make that scene still work mostly as-is, because Barton doesn't exactly get a whole lot of face-to-face interaction with people, and half the reason that scene works is because it's a conversation he and Estelle have face-to-face, but my justification for it is really shaky. (He has another pretty good scene in act two, when Estelle almost gets killed, but it's not as good as his best scene. His last scene has the potential to be really awesome as well, but I need to build up to it, or it isn't going to work.)

...so, I only meant to write about the 'I should be writing Barton like he's twenty-seven and not forty-seven' part, and then this turned into a bunch of words about Barton! That I Were Like A Star is supposed to be Estelle's story, really, but it's more like The Estelle And Barton Show, and, really, I'm okay with that. (If only I could get this excited about Nick, haha. He's pretty important, too! Maybe I'll write about him tomorrow or something.)

It's after midnight now, so happy nineteenth birthday to me, I guess. (Even though I was actually born at like three in the morning.) Nobody seems to have posted a midnight happy birthday on my Facebook wall; I consider this a success. I hate those things anyway. ...actually, no, I take it back. Now that I've logged in I see my dad has. I just didn't get the email notif yet. /: Well, good night, Internet! Maybe these allergy meds will finally goddamn kick in and I'll get some sleep.

(Keats icon, you are going to get so much use for the foreseeable future.)