Yup. For the first time, too, I totally pantsed it (i.e., flew by seat of) and it took off in a whole other direction. Very strange. And I'm doing my usual down-to-the-deadline thing, and my back hurts and I'm sick of these people. I want them happily-ever-aftered already.

Four-hour blocks, huh? Weird. But yeah, all the more reason not to hold them too long.

Hell, I live by seat-of-pantsing, and it gets very surprising, sometimes; I didn't expect Charlotte in Matty Groves to be the way she was, at all. And Mac is turning out to be an incredibly interesting,a nd different, character than I thought he would be.

But it's damned tricky when your editor is sitting there, tapping their wristwatch and going, ahem.....?

Cruel Sister was my first deadline ever. Hate the teeshirt.

I think deadlines are like an homage to the redballs of my previous life. need the pressure. Need at least a vague one or I might not do anything. My clearance rate's getting good now, even if I'm lacking the green that is supposed to turn cases from red to black.

I have a characterization question. How do I make a sympathetic character out of someone whose worldview I find pathetic/apalling? Particularly, using their POV.

Connie, think about attractive villains. What about Hannibal Lechter? He's a cannibal, for heaven's sake, but lots of readers/viewers were, if not precisely *sympathetic*, at least interested in him as a character, and not just as a villain.

We all want the same stuff, Connie. Love, respect, security, control over the environment, but Snidely Whiplash uses the tie-somebody-to-the tracks methods.

connie, how about the "there, but for the grace of God, go I" ploy?

Oddly enough, I can cope with evil. It's whiners and weaklings who baffle me.

connie, just make him - or her - human.

The thing about portraying humanity, in all its shades of grey - rather than the traditional white hat - black hat extremes - is that something will resonate somewhere.

The thing about a well-written character is this: they take the reader's face and turn it, not toward the light or the darkness, but toward the mirror. Something will resonate - and there's your sympathy.

t not really here

connie, does he know he's weak and/or whiny (occasionally some of us are that self-aware), or does he justify his worst behaviors and most appalling beliefs as really being courageous, just, and honorable?

I've been using the What Would Joss Do? technique for villains and reminding myself that they think they're the heroes of the story. Well, except for this one that I just made kinda batshit crazy, but he only appears for two chapters and I'm OK with having him be more plot device than person.

t /still not really here