NaNoWriMo: Number troubles.
Nov. 26th, 2004 05:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwango17,587 Words.
One of the things that keeps slowing down my writing is my tendency to get caught up in rather trivial details. For example: The magic system in my world revolves around summoning motes of light from one of eight sources of power. Mages then mentally direct the motes to move in complex patterns, and the patterns dictate what, if anything, happens as a result. With more complex patterns, it is possible to create an effect using fewer motes. A few times so far in the story I have had mages use their magic and I've mentioned how many motes they use. This is starting to become a problem.
I want the system to be consistent and make sense. It doesn't need to be so carefully planned out that I could be given an effect and be able to immediately quote exactly how many motes it would take to create, but I should at least make sure that if it takes 10 motes to set a building on fire that, later on in the story, it doesn't take 15 to light a candle.
Logically, I could just go back over the story when I'm done and assign numbers that make sense. But it bothers me that I can't write in a number and expect it to be at least halfway meaningful, and so I sit here trying to figure out how many motes it should take to make it rain, how many to create a sinkhole, how many to amplify one's voice, and how many to weave or disrupt an illusion.
One of the reasons this is so important to me is that it matters in the story. One of the significant plot points is that the number of motes that can be summoned has been steadily waning for the last few hundred years. The war in the novel is waged partially due to rival magical countries fighting over what they see as a depleting source of their power. The numbers used in battles need to decline as they use up even more of their power fighting over it.
Again, I know that I could just fill in the numbers later, but I’m finding it very hard to let myself leave them out. It feels too much like sloppy writing, or cheating, or...whatever. Sigh.
One of the things that keeps slowing down my writing is my tendency to get caught up in rather trivial details. For example: The magic system in my world revolves around summoning motes of light from one of eight sources of power. Mages then mentally direct the motes to move in complex patterns, and the patterns dictate what, if anything, happens as a result. With more complex patterns, it is possible to create an effect using fewer motes. A few times so far in the story I have had mages use their magic and I've mentioned how many motes they use. This is starting to become a problem.
I want the system to be consistent and make sense. It doesn't need to be so carefully planned out that I could be given an effect and be able to immediately quote exactly how many motes it would take to create, but I should at least make sure that if it takes 10 motes to set a building on fire that, later on in the story, it doesn't take 15 to light a candle.
Logically, I could just go back over the story when I'm done and assign numbers that make sense. But it bothers me that I can't write in a number and expect it to be at least halfway meaningful, and so I sit here trying to figure out how many motes it should take to make it rain, how many to create a sinkhole, how many to amplify one's voice, and how many to weave or disrupt an illusion.
One of the reasons this is so important to me is that it matters in the story. One of the significant plot points is that the number of motes that can be summoned has been steadily waning for the last few hundred years. The war in the novel is waged partially due to rival magical countries fighting over what they see as a depleting source of their power. The numbers used in battles need to decline as they use up even more of their power fighting over it.
Again, I know that I could just fill in the numbers later, but I’m finding it very hard to let myself leave them out. It feels too much like sloppy writing, or cheating, or...whatever. Sigh.
