ROW80 Check-In: July 20.

Well, here’s another great thing to say about A Round of Words in 80 Days: it gives me material for at least two blog topics a week! Sometimes I am terribly lazy, and it’s nice sometimes to wake up and think, “Hey, I don’t have to try to come up with something to write about today; it’s Wednesday!”

But, in all honesty, though I’m no where near my initial goal, I’m very pleased with how Serpent in a Cage‘s rewrite is going. I’m about halfway through the first chapter at this part, and it’s ringing very similar to the original Chapter One, but with a slightly different angle, a bit more serious and I think in a fashion that captures Locke’s moodiness and irritability much better. I worry that I’m not putting in as much atmospheric detail as I was hoping to (that was one thing I resolved to include more of in this version), but I just have to remind myself that those things can be taken care of in the revision process and to not let it slip me up.

One thing I love about this book is how flawed the characters are. Right in time for Kait Nolan‘s great post on the challenges of writing YA, I’ve come to realize how much I enjoy writing a characters like Locke, young, self-entitled, self-important, and irritated at everything, and Gilferen, gawky, awkward, and unsure of his place in this great big wide world. Though a bit older and wiser (a bit!) than Locke and Gilferen, there’s also Awngel, a young woman who can’t seem to stop making bad choices in her life, especially when it comes to love, and Hederrick, a man trying to pursue a future considered well above his social station. Serpent in a Cage is definitely not Young Adult fiction, but the characters it focuses on are young adults, and it’s just as much a tale about self-discovery and growth as it is about magic and kidnappings and great big prophesies about gods.

I may be behind on my quote, unquote “goals” for the novel, but there’s no doubt that I’m reawakening a great love for these characters and the wonderful stories they’ve given me.