O, is it all forgot?

I have not forgotten Emergent. Honestly, though, there would not have been an update here if Chas hadn't come by, read, commented and re-sparked a series of thoughts I'd been having. (Thanks for that. And for freaking me out. I'll never get published.)

Very little in the way of actual writing has taken place since (eep!) January, although I have turned over many mental stones and poked at ideas until I've more or less arrived at a system for magic that will hopefully be lots more interesting than mana pools.

There are still a number of problems I need to resolve before delving too far into writing.

Firstly, I still haven't gotten to know Jeyne at all. She's a mystery to me, so perhaps sticking with third person isn't the worst idea in the world.

Secondly, I have some notions as far as the major events in the story, but I want to be able to fit several rather large pieces together and I'm not sure I have them all assembled in a way that I understand how the presence of one will affect another or even where the major alliances will fall. (Which is to say, in as unclear a fashion as possible, that I need to settle in my mind how the military, clergy and ruling powers all interact. And whether there are more factions to consider, such as merchants or even the peasant classes, etc.) (To be even more succinct, I want the world to be rich and varied but clearly understood.)

Thirdly, and perhaps relating to the first point, I need to determine from which subset of the overall populace Jeyne comes from. The more I consider, the less I like the idea of her being an inn-keeper's daughter. I want to stay away from the most common clichés as much as I can, and I feel that "commoner who rises to power and/or glory," "girl who stands on her own in a man's world," and "princess who doesn't act like a priss" are all done to the point of being somewhere well past dead.

In fact, most fantasy novels also contain patriarchal societies, except for the ones that are matriarchal and usually very bad due in large part to the fact that they seem to be written by bitter women who hate men and make their male characters whiny, emo bitches.

I don't want either, thanks.

In fact, I really enjoy Scott Lynch in that regard. His books have a refreshing lack of gender bias, in my opinion. Men and women alike are sailors and soldiers, powerful and powerless, thieves and nobles.

With that in mind, I am thinking of moving Jeyne closer to where the heart of the story will take place - the seat of power in the realm - and thrust some events on her swiftly enough that perhaps it won't matter what she started out as.

Although, you know, I am thinking maybe she's a palace guard. Standing in the drizzle on a cold autumn's night and about to find some naked dude. Because for whatever else I don't know about this story, I do know it should start with a naked dude. And rain. Naked dudes and rain are where it's at.