Skeleton or: Dancing With Who Brung You

Mughal Period (after 1600) / Ustad Mansur/ A Chameleon

Didn't bother to go into work today. I want to go in and put in some OT for money and guilt, but I wasn't moved at all and the bed was warm and cozy.  So I will probably go in tomorrow and spend just enough time to clear the bases so I am not carpet-bombed when I return to work on Tuesday. 

Today is family birthday party.  I always cringe a little bit at these, I love each of my family members individually, but when you get them all together, something strange happens and all the little idiosyncrasies that are not at all bothersome in individuals become a set of self-reinforcing oddness that is odd in the extreme.  Now don't think for a moment that I do not contribute my fair share to this, but it is exhausting.

Screed:

OK:  Gonna be brave here and start working through the structure of the story-line. 

Now, I have put up what I will label as the "Priscus" already in an earlier post.  Essentially it is the prologue of how the book ties into the Weird of Hali FanFic universe.  Pretty much works out the tie in to the "God" aspects of the HP Lovecraft Universe. 

I am planning on following the Priscus with ten (10) chapters that will constitute the main body of the work.  These will follow the Latin naming motif.  Caput is the best I can come up with for latin = chapter, thus:

Caput Primum
Caput Secundum
...
Caput Decem

Imbedded in each chapter will be three sub-story lines.  The first storyline will be the awakening of a new God in the Outer and having him move to earth.  The headings for these will consist of the word Alucinor followed by the chapter number (e.g. Alucinor Primum)

The second will be the main storyline as told by the protagonist and the secondary protagonist.    The heading for this sub-story line will be Orbis followed by the chapter number (e.g. Orbis Secundum)

The third will be the story as told by the secondary protagonist in Dreamlands.  The heading for this sub-story line will be Somnio followed by the chapter number (e.g. Somnio Decem)

Then there will be an epilogue,  Calling it Postea

Now, you may be wondering why in the world I am going to all this effort in speaking out loud the structure of a very unformed book.  Those of you with an artistic bent will probably rattle off some nonsense about me limiting my spirit and confining my muse.  Well here is the deal.

Truth be told, I have spent the last thirty years of my life writing within a set of differing constraints and limitations.  Such is the joy of a technical writer.  At this late point in my career I am andold dog who is unwilling/unable to learn new tricks, so I am writing the way I know how to write.  By limiting the scenes and stories and structure, I create a way to progress and intermediate goals that can keep me in track  I am writing a grant in a sense, where the questions need to be answered in the order presented and have to meet certain criteria to get accepted.  It is how I know how to write.  So I am formalizing the process up front. 

So now I am going to the next process and assigning the major themes to be addressed in each of the chapters.  Just a definition of what vignettes will be addressed in each chapter.  For this I will need to define the timeline.  Currently my thoughts are using the time between Innsmouth and Dreamlands.

Finally, I will need to create a Dramatis Personae for the characters I will be using and their tie-ins.

OK:  On to the work.