My Little Obsessions

As I work on the next letter, a puzzle to be sure, I'm finding myself obsessing over the same little things. I remember writing the first draft I was careful to make each greeting to Mirth different each time.

It makes sense, because when you're writing in strict form - i.e. letters, which have the same basic structure - you have to do something to mix it up a little. Having the 'envelopes' does that of course, but it wouldn't be good if each greeting was the same.

For instance, here are the greetings we've used so far:

1) Dear Cousin,

2) Sweet Coz,

3) Brave Cousin,

4) My dearest Ange,

5) Unfortunate cousin,

6) Oh my only true friend,

7) My poor troubled cousin,

8) Oh my beautiful Princess Angevine,

9) ???

And the closings:

1)Yours ever, Ange.

2) Ever keeping up appearances, Mirth

3) Ever hopeful, Ange

4) Horses whinny, yours forever, Mirth

5) ever yours, Ange

6) Your silly cousin, Mirth

7) Weary yours,Ange

8) Your frightfully LATE cousin, Mirthyane Anthaina of Carentas! 

I made a list of all greetings and closings. (I wonder where those notes went?) Crazy of me, I know. Still, sometimes it's the little things that make the difference, and this is something only an author should obsess over, not the reader.

It's important to be consistent too, especially with spelling of names, country, and any colloquialisms. I know I mention it in the notes of Letter 8, about the spelling of ladyes vs ladies. I did a search through the manuscript so far and I'm happy to let you know that Letter 8 is the first time we've used the word 'ladyes'. We use the word Lady several times, but not the plural. So, you can spell it however you want, we just have to remember to spell it the same way for the rest of the manuscript.

Still, for all my obsessing over the little things, right now I should maybe focus on making the story and the characters the best they can be. We can always go back and tweak the spelling of things. That's what Find and Replace is for.

Character comes first, and the story will follow. Now, on to Letter Nine.

(And then I can get back to Iana's story.)