Open for business

Every writer has themes and issues and things that attract them to the ideas they have. Ways they execute those ideas. With my paranormal/urban fantasy hat on, I'm finding that I'm drawn to open worlds far more than closed ones. (An open world, for my purposes being one where the supernatural element isn't a secret and closed one where it is. Harry Potter is a closed world, the muggles don't know about the wizards. Something like X-Men is open, everyone knows there are mutants). As a sweeping generalisation, I'd say that until a few years ago, a lot of paranormal romance dealt with closed worlds but as urban fantasy has really taken off, open worlds are becoming more common.

There's nothing wrong with one or the other but I prefer the tensions in "what happens when you throw x and y and z together and they have to deal" to the tensions in "we have to remain hidden". Maybe it's because I read so much fantasy growing up but I like the "what ifs" and "how does that change things" of warping our world by throwing various critters and powers into the mix. It's more interesting to me than "we're a big mysterious secret and have to keep it that way". YMMV : )

I do have a couple of closed world ideas but I was thinking about it the other day and I think part of the reason they're still in the idea pile, even the one with the completely killer opening scene that I adore, is because they're closed worlds and that just doesn't make the girls prick up their ears quite as much. Hopefully I'll figure out how to change that at some point. Because they're both cool ideas.

And now, here's tonight's progress report.


Progress - Lily

New pages - Five (I've hit 90 pages, woohoo. Closing in on that first hundred and probably about a quarter done with my draft)
Intriguing things - Sneakiness
Annoyances - Low annoyance factor tonight
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Soundtrack
Location - The desk. Word and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Post work catnap to restore the brain.
Muse food - Reading about gorgeous messed up red headed boys in Corambis and Julie Anne Long's The Perils of Pleasure.