lookee, progress!

I’ve made some progress on Sweet Heart Catalyst. I’ve been writing this thing in a different way than I usually do. Instead of starting at the beginning and writing each chapter or scene in succession, I’ve been using prompts to spark my imagination, and then writing the scenes as they come to me, which is often totally out of order. Maybe not the most efficient way to work, but I think it’s been stimulating my writing brain in new and different ways, and that can only be a Good Thing™.

I’ve also come to the realization that I need to do some research on some topics that I never thought I’d need to research: cops, guns, and serial killers. Yep, apparently my science fiction story is just chock full of ‘em. So now I need to find out the answers to all the questions that I never paid much attention to in the Nanowrimo forums: What procedures do they follow when investigating a crime scene? Who’s in charge of the investigation: local police, state police, or the feds? All of ‘em? What kind of guns do cops carry? What the frell does the inside of the police station look like? How does a police interrogation work? And of course, how does it feel to get shot? My story is set on a different world, so I have some leeway to make stuff up, but real world analogues will be both helpful and necessary. One thing’s for certain, at some point I’ll be falling down into a deep research hole. Back when I was in the early stages of writing Algae, I once spent almost an entire weekend reading about hydraulic cylinders. I foresee something like that in my future. Except for “hydraulic cylinders”, substitute “the Reid technique of interviewing and interrogation”. Or something.