The Tailor - Chapter One
( Read more... )

Many of you know that I've been completely re-writing The Tailor. This is somewhat unfortunate as I already had 60 pages written, but the new pages that I do have are so much better than the old version. At least, I think so. Some might disagree, but ultimately, it is what I choose to write and what makes me pleased that matters most. I want to get this published some day, so that might change in the future... but for now, I come first and formost in weight for my story.

Major changes:
-Gabrielle's name has been changed to Abigail. This name is similar, yet not my nickname. It helps me write the character because it doesn't feel like I'm writing 'me' anymore. This is good.
-I've changed the story from first to third person so that I could actually write some description. As mentioned above, I was "too close" to the story with it in first.

I don't have that much written thus far... and I have lots more that I need to do. LOTS and lots. But I feel much better about it thus far. Maybe I'll post some soon. For now, I will write!

It's crunch time. I have to have 65 pages (16,250) for tomorrow, and I'm at 14,501 currently. 1,749 left to get done before 5 PM tomorrow! For now, though, I sleep and leave you with a finished chapter 3. Well, as finished as a draft gets, anyway. Chapter 4 is now done, as well, and half of chapter 5. I can't wait to get back to chapter 11, though... so much fun.

Anyway, here you go!

The Tailor

Chapter Three

Some time during the night, the village was covered in a blanket of white. Faint lines along the uneven cobblestone gave the only indication that the world was different underneath. Winter – and the first snowfall- had come at last, and it had come behind the storyteller’s wagon as it did every year.
Yet as I set out to trump through the weather, it became apparent that the white was naught but a thin covering, betrayed by the nearly clear and azure sky. My feet fell right through to the dead grass beneath the frost. Nevertheless, I pulled my cloak over my arms and slowly made my way to the shed.
I pulled three splintered logs from the top of the pile, revealing the dry wood untouched by the snow. While I was gathering an armful of kindling, however, my attention was pulled away by the startled snort and neighing of a horse. I looked to the stable and set the wood back among the rest of the pile. Arms free to hold my cloak tight against my cold arms, I made my way to the stable with crunching footsteps that spoiled the previously untouched snowfall.
( “Oak?” I asked once I’d pushed open the heavy wooden door leading into the rows of stalls and horses. )

---

Once I get tomorrow's work done, I have to take a break from The Tailor to focus on finals and commissions and such... but then I'll be back on track and slowly moving toward my goal of 220 pages. Hope you enjoy!

Yay! I got to 10,798 today. I've got quite a bit more to go until I've got enough for Wednesday and even more until it's finished, but breaking 10,000 is a big deal to me. Updated .doc located here for your reading pleasure. Just be warned of spoilers and the like if you choose to read it that way unstead of when a new/finished chapter is posted in chronological order. :)

2,393 words- approximately 9.5 pages paperback. I figure if I can keep each chapter between 6-10 pages, I'll be golden.

The Tailor

Chapter Two

We moved into the front room and settled before the dying fire. My knees dug into the worn rug as I reached for the black metal poker that rested against the brick fireplace.. The hearth was so coated from years of ash and soot that it appeared to be carved coal shying away from drifting embers. I stoked the fire and closed my eyes against the warm air the fire yawned at me as it woke from its slumber. I set the metal prod aside and looked to the man who had taken residence in father’s large chair.
“Tuttle, would you share news of the kingdom with me?”
( He turned his gaze down to me and let an amused smile slide into his expression, then folded his arms across his chest. “Wouldn’t you prefer hearing tale of the magpie or wolves?” )

First, two things:

• We're up to 8,034 words... that translates to approximately 32 pages paperback.
  
• Chapter two is almost finished. And while chapters three, four, and five have progressively more work to be done on them, chapters 7 and 8 are finished. Paragraphs dot the other chapters.

Next, my current concern is about cliches in stories. The Tailor has a lot of Fairy Tales interspursed in it, mixed and matched and intermingled and twisted all throughout. Last night while researching and getting story ideas out, the thought came to me that what might work later on is to have a ball. You know, a dance. UGH. Yes, start groaning, because it really IS cliche and- I feel - overdone. So I thought perhaps a Christmas Feast/Festival might be more appropriate, but even that... A large gathering might work just perfectly, however, and this IS winter. Thoughts on this? How do YOU guys feel about balls/dances/etc?

I'm so glad I know what the *ending* is now, though. Or, more specifically, the resolution of the journey the character takes in self-discovery. Yeahhhh... :)

I saw this on re-image and thought it would be fun. Hehe. :D Here are the two princes, Russel and Garret. Spolier? I don't care. Done with Gaia's avatar generator something-or-other. Handsome, aren't they?

Current challenges I'm stuggling with:

1. "Tailor" is, according to dictionary.com 'One that makes, repairs, and alters garments such as suits, coats, and dresses.' This is accurate enough, but 'tailor' seems to have a masculine connotation. In critiques, I am often asked to change it to 'seamstress,' but this would not work for the purpose that I need. It has to be 'tailor' for the story to work. Possible options:
   
   
   • Have it be 'tailor' and just ignore everyone.
     
   • Change Gabrielle's last name to 'Tailor', which might add a few interesting paragraphs about the irony. "I hate how the village folk find themselves oh-so-clever when they call me 'Gabrielle Tailor.' Oh, look! There goes Gabby Tailor, the tailor! Oh ho ho ho. Ridiculous." Though, this drops 'Lockewood' from the story, which is a last name I hold dearly. Could use it in another story, however (ie: 'Light the Lamp,' as Analise currently has no last-name to speak of.)
     
   • I could also envoke some women's rights movement stuff. Her mother, Margaret, is a seamstress but probably goes under the cover of her husband. Thusly, they are a Tailor Shop but the tailoring is 'secretly' all done by Mum. Father is a washed up ol' farmer who doesn't want to do anything but drink at this point, anyway. I can imagine her using the familiar quote "When a piece of good work is done by 'anynomous,' it's definitely a woman's craftsmanship." -- This would also give further justification for Mum's forcefullness at the idea of sending Gab out to 'find her fortune,' something women didn't do, apparently. This idea would also work well for the climax of the novel, and could even find the last idea a place.
   
   Either way, it seems that something ought to be done.
   
2. How do I justify the fox's contracts? This is several chapters down the road, but an important point, though a recent addition to the original tale. There are a lot of good reasons for it, but the justifications for it... the rules, I suppose I could say, are almost lost to me. He wants a name. I know why. But why does he HAVE to have one? This one will take some work to get hammered out. Should I play the 'virgin' card, or is that too cliche or too politically incorrect? (As if I *really* care about politics, honestly. They shouldn't get in the way of a good story.)
   
3. When the prince, Gab, and possibly fox reach the village... ... where do I go? Shall I introduce the other prince? Should he even be IN the story? When they hear that the prince is supposed to be dead, what should they do? I feel as if I should watch Prince and the Pauper and several other fairytale stories to get an idea... but I really don't want this to feel like a cliche live-action Disney adventure.
   
4. ... should I make a website for The Tailor? :) :) :) :)
   
5. I need more user icons. I love the fox, but no one wants to see that icon on every entry.

Rough/uneditted. 1,727 words making it approximately 6.9 pages paperback.

The Tailor

Chapter One

To be honest, I never thought much of someone who calls themself a tailor. The idea of spending all your life sewing, mending, and stitching bored me to no end. What could possibly be fulfilling about an occupation like that? Granted, when your three brothers are already a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker, you don’t have much of a choice; but there are other things. Why my mother told the entire village that I was going to be a tailor in the first place is anyone’s guess, but I can tell you right now, I am most decidedly not a tailor.
I was more like the jack of all trades; proficient in several crafts, yet I excelled in none. This troubled my parents, who had made their living on the small farm that burned down just a few years ago. They now worked as tailors themselves, and made meager wages. The entire village was poor; full of elderly couples on the edge of the kingdom who scraped by with as little as they could. My brothers left one by one as soon as the farm went, leaving me behind as another mouth for my parents to feed. Don’t get me wrong, though- I earned my keep by various chores around the home, and if cooking, cleaning, and a bit of tailoring here and there wasn’t enough, keeping our horse in saddle ought to have been.
( “Gabrielle!” My mother called from the kitchen. “Come in to help with the soup, and bring some wood for the fire.” )

This is 21% of my 25,000 word goal. Shorter than the NaNos, yes, but this is a Young Adult novel, not a big novel. :)

I've updated my .doc of the story, located here, but you should be warned that it's not completed. I find writing by jumping back and forth between chapters works best for me, so beware. X)

Today I introduced the Prince and Ruben, who is actually someone you already know. And, hey, now I can update my Tailor outline because I figured out a large chunk of the missing story today. Wooh!

Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for showing your interest in my writing- I really appreciate it. :)

Today marks the start of NaNoWriMo. I hope to get some words in today, but we'll see when I finish my research paper and still more writing for ThT. I did do one thing, though, and changed the title of my NaNo. The new tentative title is 'The Imaginary', and will short-handed as TIm. Weird.

Further, why is it that all of my titles are 'The name'? The Winged Opagin, The Tailor, etc. ... Oh well. It works for now. X)

Anyway, off I go to write! ...about LASIK surgery!

http://www.wisdomportal.com/MagpieNotes.html
http://druidry.org/obod/lore/animal/magpie.html
http://www.kypros.org/Cyprus/magpie.html

Thanks to slinky_dragon for help with the links. Need to find more...

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and although I had originally decided to not participate, nidonocu managed to persuade me otherwise with his flattery and own excitement. Jerk. However, this opens up an interesting opportunity for the story my CW teacher asked me to write. Right now, all I've gathered is that it borrows a character from my Pokemorph roleplaying and tosses her into a dramatized story of my life. The darker, imaginary side that is.

Thus far, there are only two solid characters, and only a few vague scenes in my mind. I do know the premise, though, and I've got an idea of how it ought to turn out in the end. The story also desperately needs a new title, but I've always been terrible with titles.

The characters: Laura (needs a last name), a girl in high school struggling with depression... and Lore, her imaginary friend.

This will explore anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks, paranoia, self-consciousness, betrayal, self-mutilation (or rather, the temptation thereof), and dreams. But I hope to not let it get extreme in that it will be an uncomfortable read, but an engaging story and not so uncomfortable that it's oppressive. Just honest with a cute little pink ribbon.

Most likely, it will also involve the internet in some way. Stalker situation, perhaps? Well, it'll figure itself out in time, I'm sure. I will turn to Alice in Wonderland for inspiration.

I have several large gaps in the first part of The Tailor that desperately need to be filled in. If you've been following along with the .doc that's updated once a week, you'll see where the chunks of missing story are really making quite the draft. Draft as in holes where there shouldn't be, letting the wind blow right through any sort of exposition. Oops.

To start, we have Gabrielle and her family, with visiting friend Tuttle. They have dinner and he bids Gab to sneak off with him into the front room. Then, the story skips an entire chapter to where Tuttle is basically hitting on the poor girl. Before the reader gets to see anything happen, Gab is suddenly out in the woods, traipsing through the snow. But what happens between these?

Hence my writing project for this afternoon. The missing chapter in the beginning is a story told by the masterful teller of tales himself, which for me is quite intimidating. If he's supposed to be so good and this is my first novel, how do I show that? How am I supposed to craft his words as expertly as they ought to be? I turn to Watership Down as an example of this. But first, I must come up with a story for him to tell! Likely, it will include a piece or two about Magpies (for later chapters) and the Fox, who we meet in the second chunk of story that's actually written.

Then, to finish with the unfortunate controversy between the life-long family friend and the girl who realizes that she doesn't want any part of this "modest proposal." This done, we begin her journey and... eventually, several chapters later, meet up with the fox and continue on to the prince.

I suppose, if nothing else, I am glad that the story is fleshing itself out. :D