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Daisy, fantasy, Gies, Gregorio, id cesnce, Lucette, no, Paul Gies, Paul J Gies, revision, writers, Writing, ynontion
Remember Daisy’s other enchanter classmate, Gregorio? Oh… no, one wouldn’t remember Gregorio; he hasn’t been mentioned till now.
I’ve been trying to avoid cliches (“Avoid cliches like the plague!”), especially since the whole point of Daisy is to take a cliche-ridden genre (D&D-flavored sword & sorcery) and disassemble it a bit to see what it would really be like to be inside a world like that. So for instance, from the very first page, I decided I wouldn’t have Daisy’s popular girl rival, and I wouldn’t have her inept and unworthy (but very confident) suitor.
Well, eventually I needed Lucette Barnswallow, and now, forgive me, I have Gregorio. I’m going to need to go back and include him earlier, although he doesn’t have to intrude on the story in any serious way.
Of course the thing about those stereotyped characters (especially in something like a high school or college scene) is that they’re based on real characters. So if Lucette is a lot like Cordelia in “Buffy,” and Gregorio is a bit like Cormac, neither of them is exactly like that; rather, Lucette is a lot like some of the girls in Barrington High School, and Greg is a bit like some of the boys.
If you’re following my blog (“the few, the proud, the brave”) then you know you’re reading a first draft. The chapter pages are the second draft, and the third draft too. Even in those, you can expect some changes to occur. But the ultimate goal is to make something that might merit publication, and when you buy the book (both of you!), you’ll probably see Lucette and Greggy right there on Page 2.
And that is as nothing compared to the fact that I’ve started to think something really important is going on in Insmoor. It’s kind of like what happened to Tolkien when he wrote a friend of his that, after working on a story about “Bingo Bolger-Baggins” and his friends, on a lark with old Bilbo’s ring, he and his hobbits suddenly ran into a Black Rider. I am starting to think that Daisy is going to find something dangerous and deeply meaningful, and that will mean a lot of rewriting.
Paul