The idea I had was to mix magic, video games, and romance. Sounds like it should be at least interesting. What you'll see is that I got focused on one element at the cost of the other two. But, there's stuff in the story that I feel I can salvage for use elsewhere. Not a complete loss, but disappointing in retrospect.
The first scene is on Jackie's favourite game character, one of her own devising. She's playing a nameless MMO, one not based on any that existed at the time. To be honest, I don't play MMOs. If I want to go slay monsters with friends, I'm pulling out D&D or some other RPG. The MMO is more or less what I want to see in one, not what exists commercially. And, given that there's a twelve year gap between when I wrote Digital Magic and today, there's a tech gap as well.
Chapter 1, like many of my Chapter 1s, presents the main character, in this case, Jackie, in a typical day in her life. I realized in later works that I do this to show when things start going weird for the character. There's dropping a character /in media res/ to get the action going, and that works if weird is normal for the character. Here, though, Jackie is a student, not a spy or a mystery writer. Heaven's Rejects can get away with the weird coming up early; that's Nadia and Ian's job. Digital Magic needs the slow build up.
The not-quite-off screen sex scene just happened. I tend to pants my way through writing, so if something came about organically from the scene, I went with it. Trish is the more outgoing of her and Jackie. There's backstory, and some of that comes out later. They are friends, but Jackie is well aware of who Trish is, and vice versa.
I may have been asking for trouble writing in the first person. Thing is, I couldn't figure out how to work a later scene in third person. While I pants, if I get an idea of something to add, I will work my way up to it, using the idea as a guide post. The advantage of first person is being in the character's head and knowing what she thinks and feels. The disadvantage is that you're stuck with that character. The character has to be interesting. While Jackie did go digging through the settings, I'm hoping her thought processes help keep things fresh.
Tomorrow, girls' night out in Digital Magic Chapter 2.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, The Expanse Season 2.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, fixing and remaking The Raven.
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