chelseagirl

We lag behind on watching ST: Disco, because it's one of M's and my mutual shows and therefore we have to find the time to sit down together. Finally saw last week's, and . . . I don't think I saw anyone mention this, but I could have been skimming, since I hadn't seen it yet but -- Stella is played by the same actor who plays Nicole Hawt on Wynonna Earp! And I totally now see that the Stellabot is Mudd's misogynist caricature of a woman who he probably did drive a bit mad with his just being himself . . . His character is so much darker and smarter than TOS Mudd; I hope this helps Rainn Wilson break out of his The Office stereotype and get more work.

I have now written three different openings to my historical mystery -- which needs a better nickname, soon. There's the version that opens in New York, which ended up having way too much "she explains the background." And there's the version that spends three chapters in Montana, to set up who the character is and what's at stake, except much of it is introducing characters who won't have much to do with the rest of the story. So then I wrote a third version which begins with the main character waiting for the train to come East, with just four friends waiting with her -- three of whom will stay out west, but be part of a secondary narrative of finding out who killed the protagonist's father, and two of whom will be frequent correspondents. I think I can use letters to flesh out the past and who this character was before she becomes a fish out of water.

The fourth is the love interest, who is another story, because he needs the most adaptation, being one of the characters from the original property I was fanficcing. Also, to stay true to my "two outsiders come to New York, she ends up in "The Age of Innocence" and he ends up in "Gangs of New York"" premise, he's got to hit bottom for awhile. I won't keep him there for book after book, but he'll stay connected with the underworld enough so that he'll have sources for their investigations. I am struggling with him the most, right now, in fear that if I alter him too much, I flatten him out. One of the things I really like about the set of OCs I created in the fic is that over time they gained a lot of depth and development and I don't want to see my leading man diminish, when he was the most vivid character of all.

I'm also figuring out which Western characters can become New Yorkers -- two of them seem to be adapting to be Easterners quite well which gives E. (she was Ella in the fics, and I'm toying with making her Emma now) more of a circle where I already understand the relationships and interactions.

Meanwhile, I have started reading the first of several histories of women lawyers in the 19th century US -- when I created my character, 20 years ago, I was basing her on several cases I was familiar with, but some historians have been on the job in the intervening years, and now there are books!