#float wip

[incandescent-creativity]

“The horror of talking about your wip out loud with people you know irl—” LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER. FORTY MINUTE PHONE CALL WITH YOUR BOOK CLUB FRIEND IDENTIFYING WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR DRAFT.

[incandescent-creativity]

I’m in a sort of weird limbo with FLOAT right now, but I don’t want to not be posting about it… nobody would happen to have any questions floating around in their head, would they 👀

[incandescent-creativity]

If anybody ever needed a succinct list of the creatures that show up in FLOAT, save one, River has your back:

Then again, I’ve met a giant squid who understood that my shapeshifting wasn’t a threat to her young, and bioluminescent whales, and fish who bludgeon their way through ships, and zombie-making feather stars. Why not hypnotizing jellyfish?

[incandescent-creativity]

Today’s FLOAT line of the day is

"Fangfin," Dirt reports.

In the time it takes me to decipher the word, Aspen lets loose enough swears to remind me that she is a sailor.

[incandescent-creativity]

And this is why editing is the best part — I’m not clever enough to put in humorous little moments like this when I’m first-drafting

[incandescent-creativity]

Aspen himbo moment

aka you dumb ho she’s “nervous” because she’s being manhandled by a hot pirate captain in close quarters, not because of bugs

Transcript for the above:

“Aspen!” she is calling out, before seeing I’m already on my feet. “Oh. You’ve heard.”

“I haven’t,” I say, already moving closer to her (and the stairs). “What happened?”

“There’s—” She hesitates, which means it’s a creature she doesn’t know how to describe instead of somebody getting hurt. “There’s giant water skeeters out there.”

When she doesn’t move out of my way on the stairs, I set my hands on her to move her myself. “There’s what?”

“Bugs, big bugs,” she babbles as I squeeze past her on the stairs, sounding more nervous than I would expect. Does she have a thing about bugs?

[incandescent-creativity]

One of my favorite micro moments to write are the times where one character recalls something another character said previously, because the subtle ways the recollection has changed what was actually said can reveal so much about a character/narrator.

Example: What Aspen actually says when explaining things is

“He keeps track of all the little artifacts we find, but it’s difficult when we live in a looped current. Usually, the only things we find are the things we dropped earlier.”

Later in the chapter, River recalls this as follows:

Nothing feels different to me, but then again, I don’t know anything about currents. Except for what Aspen said yesterday: the only things we usually find are what we dropped earlier.

Very close to word for word! But paraphrased a little bit, rearranged a word here to there. Because what matters to River is the practical information, the point of what Aspen says. Not the accuracy of the actual words she used, which other characters might value more.

[incandescent-creativity]

“My name is Aspen.”

“You’re on the ship Endurance. We sail around, picking up lost and drifting sailors like yourself.”

“Don’t worry if you don’t remember anything about your life; that’s normal here. The important thing is that you’re safe now.”

A fun one with Aspen in River’s color! I did limit myself to one (1) ocean water picture, which was more difficult than I expected.

But im quite pleased with the elements I did manage to find. Her rescue missions are represented in the supply photos on the far right, the ship elements like the rope and sails are in there, I even got to include something a little more symbolic in how Aspen keeps everybody afloat.