Working Out The Puzzle

 Yeah, Quick Update

United Light Revisited

One of the things, and I think we can all agree, about United Light that always struck me was the length of the chapters I think it really shows how invested Shawna was in the characters and the story. Even though I know it ends it seems when reading it that it would make a great TV show. I don't know Shawna we are in LA !

Chapter 4

This Chapter was inspired by actual Freighter Cruises. This link was the inspirational voyage for the Maitesse. As you can imagine these cruises are quite expensive but the perfect plot device for this story.

Many of the songs helped to write along their own sections especially Life For Rent the lyrics are point on to where the character is in the story. We have a character who is general an agoraphobic and this chapter served to a be a big turning point in this, the motivation just had to take some time to set in.

Alot of people commented on the emotion in Mr. Fierro's chapters as opposed to Clara's and that is because Clara is constantly lving in the present she has had time to heal and her past is behind her.

Timelines Matter

Once again when re-reading United Light one of the things I paid attention to more was timelines. I do enjoy dabling in telling a story out of order so I thought I would sketch out the timeline as best I could.

Clara's Story is linear. Chapters 1 and 3 are told in order starting from May 2011

Mr. Fierro's Story - Is a bit more complicated. I wanted to tell what happens after the events of HOF from his POV but I didn't want to start things off that way so his first chapter (Chapter 2) takes place in May 2011 too, however he backtracks to December of 2007 and tells the story in a linear fashion from there.

It gets complicated when we try to match up what is happening to one character than another

Chapter 5

I suppose looking back I could have paired this with chapter 4, because this one is so short. I like the music in this chapter but it was more of an afterthought

Playlist

+1+ Good Night Song  - Tammy Hall

+2+ - Nothing Left To Lose - Matt Kearny

Chapter 5

Lot's of Shawna Shout Outs

Oh, Shawna I blame you

After reading about how SH re-read  parts of LA, SA and FS. . . I decided to do the same thing, and I was certainly glad I had one of my mom's famous martinis in hand (read: a regular martini in a 6 oz glass). Working on that series was a great first experince I don't think I realized how much Sofia and Tomas went through. I think starting with Free Spirits there was a lot tension between them and I feel like I can say they got happy ending they deserve.


I kept asking myself "why did I make them do that" and then I would think "oh, that's why".
On a funny note I can't believe I only used "Fuck" once and "Shit" twice in the entirety of Litany Lane and HOF. Both are said by "evil" characters (Roger and the Men whose car hits Clara).

Thinking of Litany Lane

I've always felt that part of Litany Lane is that was  it was very "high concept", but I always felt that the characters would never stay in Nightfall in the end and that bothered me becuase I like to leave room for sequels. Once again while re-reading notes I did remember a meta thing I put into LL to reason for creating sequels and it is when Emile is talking about the book he is writing.

One day when she is set to return she decides to runaway. Upon hearing this Hades sends the underworlds’ notorious inmates out looking for her. It goes on in exciting detail about the wreckage the Titans and Persephone cause on the living world

- Chapter 7, LL

While I did enjoy creating my own fictional world, as I'm sure Shawna knows, it's really hard.
.

Chapter 3

That was one of the easiest chapters for me to write, once again there isn't anything too particular about this chapter except it establishes a pattern I'm surprised no one commented on.  . I realized  what needed to happen was that chapter 4  needed to have a more abstract set up, so we will see how this goes.

Chapte 4

This chapter put me through the ringer, the timeline on my documents tells me that I have been working on this since October and none of the original material is in thier now.

For some reason I think chapters get better the more they "age" but that isn't neccesraily true as I remember from chapters of SA for example the chapter Wildflowers was written the day it was posted and it is one of my favorites

I want to thank Shawna for her advice, I did try writing for myself but I kept saying "wait what happens now ?". This is one of the issues with writing from an outline I have started to connect the dots before I draw them !  Meaning some parts of this chapter were written months ago. It will get easier since every other chapter through 8 (er, except 6) is written.

Playlist

+1+ - My Immortal - Evanescene
+2+ - Broken - Life House

+3+ - Life For Rent - Dido

+4+ - Ascolta- Einaudi

+5+  Ain't No Reason

+6+ - Good Enough - Evansecene
+7+ - Don't Fear The Reaper - Gus (cover)

Chapter 4