Sunday, 17 January 2010
This is a round up for the last two weeks. I've been deep in research mode so there's nowhere near as much written as I'd like, but never mind. I feel the next week will be good for writing.
Fiction
Word Count - 850 words
Stories worked on - 2 completed ficlets
Planning
Word Count - 847 words
Stories worked on - writing exercise for some original fiction (which will be posted after the round up), and plenty of non written research for both that and some primeval fiction.
Total
Word Count - 1693 words.
Writing Exercise #1
The character in this is as yet unnamed (I'm working on that with this week's exercise though). She sprang into my head fully formed and this exercise gave me some more of her back-story. The world is still a little amorphous but it's a near-earth setting similar in some ways to 18th century Europe and the heroine is an assassin.
Age 5
She remembered playing with a doll that her father had brought her. The nursery was decorated in bright colours and she spent most of her day there with the nanny. In the afternoons, if it was sunny, she was allowed to play in the garden. She hadn't realised it at the time, but it was an excuse for the nanny to get out of the nursery and talk to another adult. Nanny used to sit and gossip with one of her mother's ladies maids while she played on the grass under their watchful gaze.
Age 10
Most girls her age weren't educated, but her father had insisted she receive the same education a boy would have received if he'd been lucky enough to have a son. She learnt to read and write, she studied history, geography, politics, and she was about to start on her first foreign language. She studied every morning from eight in the morning until one in the afternoon and then they broke for lunch. In the afternoon she had a series of different tutors who taught her the more physical activities. She studied riding, fencing, and dancing. She also learnt etiquette, how to move, how to speak, how to greet anyone from the King himself to a lowly farmhand. Sometimes it was hard to move from studying military tactics in the morning to learning a court dance in the afternoon, but she was intelligent and quick witted and she wanted to make her father proud, so she devoted herself to her lessons in the same way she'd devoted her childhood self to her dolls and in the evenings after dinner she would be given permission to visit her father in his study. She would recite what she had learnt that morning or show him something she'd learnt in the afternoon and he'd smile and nod and kiss her on the forehead and tell her she was a good girl.
Age 15
By the time she was 15 she could walk and curtsey and bow as well as any of the court ladies and she could ride and hunt and fence as well as any of the men, although her father had cautioned her not to let them think she was too good. No man would want to be outdone by a mere girl. She also knew where to pinch to render a man unconscious, she knew which herbs could put a man to sleep, which could wipe his memory clean for an hour or a month or forever, and which would ensure he never woke up again. These last lessons had been learnt from her father alone. He taught her sleight of hand, how to lie to someone's face and not be caught, and how to conceal almost anything beneath her voluminous dresses or in her hair.
Soon she would demonstrate her skills for the first time and learn whether she had been accepted into the secret organisation her father was a member of or not. One day she had questioned why she was learning these things when she would soon be married and have to live in her husband's house and by his rules, but her father had just smiled and kissed her hair and told her not to worry. She was simply to keep her skills sharp and if the time ever came when she needed to use them she would have them, and if it didn't, she would teach them to her own children instead.
Age 20
Kneeling in the small chapel she softly murmured her prayers, bowing her head respectfully and asking that her Lord would watch over her in her time of trouble. Rising gracefully to her feet she lit a candle, cupping her hands around it and thinking of her husband. The strength of her love and grief would determine how high the flame burned. The resulting pillar of flame was so tall that she was glad the roof of the chapel was stone and not wood or the whole castle would have gone up in flames.
It was the third day after her husband's death and in that time she had left the castle only for his funeral. She would remain cloistered until the full eight days of mourning were up and then she would resume her public life, albeit in the sombre garb of a widower. One year after his death she would rejoin the court circuit and a year after that she would once more begin to wear the brighter colours he had loved to see her in.
Although she had inherited money and property from both her mother and her husband and had no need to work, she would also begin accepting contracts from the society again once her first year of mourning was ended. It would give her something to concentrate on other than the mindless gossip that society ladies were expected to indulge in. In the meantime, the society would engage in an assignment on her behalf and ensure her husband's murderer did not live to enjoy his victory.
Fiction
Word Count - 850 words
Stories worked on - 2 completed ficlets
Planning
Word Count - 847 words
Stories worked on - writing exercise for some original fiction (which will be posted after the round up), and plenty of non written research for both that and some primeval fiction.
Total
Word Count - 1693 words.
Writing Exercise #1
The character in this is as yet unnamed (I'm working on that with this week's exercise though). She sprang into my head fully formed and this exercise gave me some more of her back-story. The world is still a little amorphous but it's a near-earth setting similar in some ways to 18th century Europe and the heroine is an assassin.
Age 5
She remembered playing with a doll that her father had brought her. The nursery was decorated in bright colours and she spent most of her day there with the nanny. In the afternoons, if it was sunny, she was allowed to play in the garden. She hadn't realised it at the time, but it was an excuse for the nanny to get out of the nursery and talk to another adult. Nanny used to sit and gossip with one of her mother's ladies maids while she played on the grass under their watchful gaze.
Age 10
Most girls her age weren't educated, but her father had insisted she receive the same education a boy would have received if he'd been lucky enough to have a son. She learnt to read and write, she studied history, geography, politics, and she was about to start on her first foreign language. She studied every morning from eight in the morning until one in the afternoon and then they broke for lunch. In the afternoon she had a series of different tutors who taught her the more physical activities. She studied riding, fencing, and dancing. She also learnt etiquette, how to move, how to speak, how to greet anyone from the King himself to a lowly farmhand. Sometimes it was hard to move from studying military tactics in the morning to learning a court dance in the afternoon, but she was intelligent and quick witted and she wanted to make her father proud, so she devoted herself to her lessons in the same way she'd devoted her childhood self to her dolls and in the evenings after dinner she would be given permission to visit her father in his study. She would recite what she had learnt that morning or show him something she'd learnt in the afternoon and he'd smile and nod and kiss her on the forehead and tell her she was a good girl.
Age 15
By the time she was 15 she could walk and curtsey and bow as well as any of the court ladies and she could ride and hunt and fence as well as any of the men, although her father had cautioned her not to let them think she was too good. No man would want to be outdone by a mere girl. She also knew where to pinch to render a man unconscious, she knew which herbs could put a man to sleep, which could wipe his memory clean for an hour or a month or forever, and which would ensure he never woke up again. These last lessons had been learnt from her father alone. He taught her sleight of hand, how to lie to someone's face and not be caught, and how to conceal almost anything beneath her voluminous dresses or in her hair.
Soon she would demonstrate her skills for the first time and learn whether she had been accepted into the secret organisation her father was a member of or not. One day she had questioned why she was learning these things when she would soon be married and have to live in her husband's house and by his rules, but her father had just smiled and kissed her hair and told her not to worry. She was simply to keep her skills sharp and if the time ever came when she needed to use them she would have them, and if it didn't, she would teach them to her own children instead.
Age 20
Kneeling in the small chapel she softly murmured her prayers, bowing her head respectfully and asking that her Lord would watch over her in her time of trouble. Rising gracefully to her feet she lit a candle, cupping her hands around it and thinking of her husband. The strength of her love and grief would determine how high the flame burned. The resulting pillar of flame was so tall that she was glad the roof of the chapel was stone and not wood or the whole castle would have gone up in flames.
It was the third day after her husband's death and in that time she had left the castle only for his funeral. She would remain cloistered until the full eight days of mourning were up and then she would resume her public life, albeit in the sombre garb of a widower. One year after his death she would rejoin the court circuit and a year after that she would once more begin to wear the brighter colours he had loved to see her in.
Although she had inherited money and property from both her mother and her husband and had no need to work, she would also begin accepting contracts from the society again once her first year of mourning was ended. It would give her something to concentrate on other than the mindless gossip that society ladies were expected to indulge in. In the meantime, the society would engage in an assignment on her behalf and ensure her husband's murderer did not live to enjoy his victory.
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