Once I finished the first draft of Where Weavers Daire and uploaded it to the writing group, some 3 weeks late after my promised deadline, I came off my victory lap and woke up the next morning with poster’s remorse. Remorse because the first draft of anything is shit. And boy did I see how I should’ve eliminated things and introduced characters sooner and and and and I need a better ending, now, I’m going to have to gut a lot of the 147k behemoth into something readable and enjoyable. Which is a good thing since It’s 47k words over my imposed ceiling. This is where my alpha readers and writing group comes in to tell me characters sound the same and why is everyone acting normal? If you don’t have alpha/beta readers to critique your work it’s time to find some…legally. Don’t hunt people down for sport only to ask them to read the next great masterpiece, it doesn’t work like that. I’ve been using Google Drive for editing so having the iPad open to scroll through the edits and the laptop open to go line by horrible line. I’m glad I decided not to push this to the limit and try and get it edited and published through Createspace. It would’ve been waste of time and money. I have started to collect names of agents that cover sci-fi and once I get done with the second or third draft I’ll think about querying. Better to put my best foot forward than slip across the floor on a banana peel of misspellings and heinous plot lines that go nowhere.
First draft of Where Weavers Daire is done. That brings the Where Weavers Daire K BAR count to: Yep, that’s 27,685K over what I wanted. But that’s what the editing chainsaw and writing group is there for. I’m happy with the way it turned out even if it was three weeks late. My original plans to get it edited and printed via Createspace by November in time for Rhode Island Comic Con have been put on hold. The stigmata of poorly edited self published books is strong. It’s best to find and fix all the errors first then either send out query letters or self publish. Bennett North has great post on Outlining your Novel since NaNoWrimo is a month and half away. A post on Destiny will be forth coming…
“Don’t turn round.” This is the episode that horror writers/directors should watch to see the tension get wretched up without the cheap thrills, blood or music. Written by Stephen Moffat it takes it’s themes from Don’t Blink and Silence in the Library without the use of the Angels that have become the Borg to the Doctor’s Enterprise. Listen begins with Doctor positing a theory: Are we actually alone when we talk out loud or do we have a companion? He does this by himself in the TARDIS. Writing things down and pacing around the set. Capaldi nails it like Tennent would’ve while Smith probably wouldn’t have nailed the dismount. I know some Smith fans may not want to hear this but the Doctor on a caffeine high has left the building. I hope a Neil Gaiman Capadi episode but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen this season. While the Doctor sets the mood, Clara and Danny Pink have a first date. The date doesn’t go well and Clara comes home to find the Doctor and the TARDIS occupying 3/4 of her bedroom. In the post haze of the bad date, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to focus on Clara’s timeline and pop back to see where Clara had that dream everyone has about something under the bed. Except, instead of Clara’s timeline we get to Rupert Pink and soon find out that yes, there probably is something under the bed and all it takes is a bed sheet, Capaldi and good direction and we get a successor to Blink. But, it doesn’t stop there. Clara asks to go back to the date and retry with Danny until Clara name drops Rupert and everything implodes again because Danny is Rupert. It implodes even more when the orange spaceman suit walks into the restaurant and motions Clara to follow him. It’s at this point no one gets up and demands to know why, this is Cardiff after all, the populace is so desensitized to the Doctor’s shenanigans that no one blinks at the strange. Torchwood should’ve been like this: Oh, more alien crap, thattaway, Torchwood and go back to their tea. The man in the spacesuit isn’t the Doctor but Orson Pink and the Doctor found him 100 years into Clara’s timeline, they launched him into space and he promptly got Buck Rogers and now he’s the last man in the universe but he’s not alone. Once Orson saves the Doctor, Clara tries to fix things and goes back down the timeline and lands in a barn and gives a crying child a good speech about the things that go bump in the night. The barn didn’t make sense at first until we find out why. The why was nicely done and I won’t ruin it here but it’s a great call back that I didn’t see coming and it really worked. Clara’s dialogue with the new Doctor continues to be a highlight while she gets her history filled in even if it’s possible future. Danny’s soldier days while not big speed bump like they were in Into the Dalek is better this time round. I think he’ll make a good addition to the companions once we see him in action and not him as a child or his great grandson. It was a good episode all around and highly enjoyed it.
For everyone who complained (not me) about episodes 1+2 being off and Episode 3 being back on track were half right. Episode 3 is a classic Doctor Who historical episode. Clara makes a request to go see a fictional character and while the Doctor tries to dissuade her, she puts down her foot and we return to Nottingham, 12th century and are instantly greeted by Robin Hood much to the Doctor’s annoyance. The tropes are there, Doctor and Robin fight on a bridge, each man besting each other. #3’s fencing comes in handy, although not as one might expect. The Merry Men are all introduced and the Sheriff while not as menacing as Alan Rickman, he’s still wants power and is willing to do anything to get it. And they all fight with English accents. Ha za! As always something is wrong and the Doctor begins looking for it within the men then the environment and finds it when as the tale goes, Robin walks into a trap and the Sheriff unleashes his robotic knights and thus begins our trip down the rabbit hole to figure out: 1. Is Robin and the Sheriff robots? 2. Why is the Sheriff taking all the gold? 3. Robotic knights with cross lasers in their foreheads? The fact Robin and the Doctor don’t get along is better than expected. Most of the time, the Doctor and his new friends generally get along well but the constant back and forth between him and the Earl of Loxley was refreshing. All the while, Clara can’t stand any of it since the Doctor’s normal plan is to use his now stolen sonic screwdriver. I’ve been enjoying Capaldi since episode 1 and this episode felt right on the money. No picking up Clara, just straight into the story. Tardis arriving shot and the whole nine. Clara gets a bit more to work with besides the added tae kwon do (which makes great sense with all the adventuring) when she’s interrogating the Sheriff of his plans. Thankfully, he’s not a robot because we’ve had that trope before and it’s been done to death. The robots from episode 1 make a re-appearance but not as clockwork as they were before and we’re given enough backstory that they landed here from the 29th Century headed to The Promised Land to make repairs to the engines and forged an alliance with the Sheriff. The Doctor rallies the prisoners in the Sheriffs dungeon and destroys most of the robots in the simplest fashion for the time without his sonic screwdriver. The only thing missing is Missy and not welcoming the Sheriff to The Promised Land but we don’t want to repeat ourselves from last episode. Overall, great episode. Throughly enjoyed it.
