The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Longer ago than I care to admit, I amused myself one day by writing a scene about a young noblewoman engaging in single combat against a mercenary to protect her home. It was pure fluff – lazy, day-dream stuff, but I amused myself sufficiently to wonder “What happened next?”

I continued to play with the characters, and quickly became dissatisfied with how un-realistic my original scenario was. So I re-wrote it. ( And things started to snowball from there. )

Yesterday, after doing yet another web search on “medieval agriculture” I finally found the bit of information I’ve been looking for for more than a year: a month-by-month calendar of the tasks of a medieval farm, including when specific crops were planted and harvested, when animals were bred and slaughtered, when trees were pruned, and etc. There’s a lot of information around about how these things are done, but this was the first time I’d found the when presented so clearly and succinctly.

So now I have the skeleton of the year, and can add the kinds of environmental details which will enhance the texture of the narrative, and have a better idea of what Seonaid and her people are doing when they’re not coping with the invaders. I feel like I’m finally ready to move forward again, and hopefully finish this project within the next six months or so.

Wonderful Quote

I just found this on the site of mommybird:

"Inside my head's a box of stars I've never dared to open...." --Sting

My work right now -- my real work, not the temp job I do for cash -- is to open the box of stars in my head and turn them into comets rushing out into the universe.