About the creative process concerning "Beautiful Minds"

[wiseheart]

As I'm too exhausted to do any creative writing at the moment, I've been working some more on the background of "Beautiful Minds".
A first rough timeline has been set up, with 89 entries so far and ongoing. The character list currently contains 71 entries, but I haven't even typed up half of it.
Both can be viewed in the Database section of the Otherworlds Library Yahoo Group.

There are still some events I haven't placed yet, like the fall of Prime Minister Harold Saxon, due to his affair with Irene Adler, and his being shot to the death by his own wife, who, BTW, is an old acquaintance of the Holmeses, being canonically the daughter of a Lord and all that. I still haven't figured out the final fate of Suzie Costello, the exact role of Colonel Sebastian Moran and what other characters will turn out to be part of Moriarty's network.

Writing the actual story is still a long way off. There are certain random scenes written, mostly concerning Mycroft and Toshiko, but I don't expect anything a bit more coherent to be written before summer break starts. And even then, it's going to be a long process, as the background is incredible complicated.

I intend to write it in a serial form. Meaning, that there will be smaller parts, a couple of chapters each, which will be independent stories, even though - in chronological order - they will form a story arc that will stretch from 1990 to at least 2015.

That is the plan anyway. We'll see how much of it will become reality. Before I launch BM, though, I'll make desperate efforts to finish "Alternate Resolutions"... perhaps even "Emissary of the Mark". Al those unfinished WIPs make me depressed. Even if there's fairly little interest, I want to finish them for my own sake.

Comments

[sammydragoncat]

You have a lot written on the time-line, it's quite impressive - Beautiful Minds sound quite daunting to write. I can see you have a clear vision on where you want this story line to go. The time-line sounds like it will make a wonderful story.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Daunting doesn't even begin to describe it! I'm positively frightened by it! Not that that would ever stop me, mind you, but I do wonder why am I doing this to myself all the time.

The timeline is sstill a bit whacky, I've got to play around with birth dates, death dates, events and the likes, so that the two universes would make temporal sense, even with the absence of the Doctor and aliens and all the sci-fi stuff.

At the same time, I'm working on my character list, too, which is an equal horror. I keep discovering new characters in the Dr Who wikia, very sideline yet highly interesting ones, and I just can't resist adding them, stupid author that I am, so the list grows longer and more complex by the day. *sighs*

Still, I enjoy world-building very much, so it's not so bad. Let's hope it will result in an actual story in the end.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

That all sounds very organised - and if you have all of it worked out in advance, easier to write without plot holes. Hopefully pico will help you finish the old stories.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, plotholes always find the breech to slip through... especially in long stories where there are extended periods of writer's block.

I've got high hopes for pico, too, although it doesn't always work out according to our wishes, as you know. ;))