Great day writing yesterday, despite the fact my cold seems to have come back or whatever the hell it is; chills and large variations in how hungry I was. Missed dinner with J. and Shad, dang.
I have no idea if I’ll write that much today, but I’ve got a couple of chapters open, so we’ll see.
The hardest parts of these novels, so far. 1. Not using gendered slurs. 2. Gender nonconforming character using plural pronouns (more difficult than I could have originally conceived, and will have to be poofread with ludicrous amounts of effort). 3. Having the person I’m writing the books for ask me to improve the outcome for a character and I’m so indulgent I’m doing it, which is resulting in interesting wrinkles. 4. Not using religious swearing of any kind (except for one character, for humorous effect) and writing abusive language without recourse to any of the normal go-tos, for example, not being able to use the word ‘crazy’ Honestly, try getting by without crazy! I’ve had to invent some bizarre phrases to try to cover ‘crazy’ without being ableist. 5. Writing about the interaction between local First Nations and aliens without cultural appropriation (essentially having to erect a literary and legal firewall).
Most fun parts: working various filk songs into the narrative, a phony Reddit AMA that was a gas to write, using 30 years of Paul nattering on at me about aviation, specifically ridge lift and gliding, and planning how I’d take over Vancouver without invading it, if I was an alien. It’s all in the social engineering, but who do you approach first and why?