NaNo Rebel 2021, Day 5 - Ancient Greek Terrain

     So, it turns out I actually can access Blogger via my phone!  That may make things easier for me later on.  (I got annoyed with other stuff I was doing online and turned off my 'net computer before writing the day's post...)

      Anyway, today's writing featured the first of many modifications to the text based on the last leg of research that I only embarked on very shortly before NaNo began, namely my research into what the parts of Greece where the novel takes place actually look like.  (Okay, using Italics on the phone turns out to be almost impossible, so that's gonna hamper this whole phone post thing...)

     All I can say is "thank goodness for Google Earth!"  Because accurate topographic maps that include Late Bronze Age (or even Classical Era) towns rather than modern ones are pretty thin on the ground, y'know?  And admittedly Google Earth doesn't show any ancient sites, either (except when they're really large, like Delphi), but it does give latitude and longitude, so you can still find where they were.  More importantly, it let me figure out exactly what the terrain would look like where they landed on the shore beside Mt. Pelion (it even had photos of the beach in question!) and measure all the distances they'd be traveling, see just how steep the slopes are, etc.

   Ugh, I hate typing on my phone.  It is so much the absolute worst that I closed the tab in frustration and booted up the computer again.  So...yeah.

    *cough*

    Aaaaaanyway, this way I can at least show you some of what I was researching via Google Earth, yeah?

    

    This was one of the first images I grabbed, where I had to go in and label some stuff.  Specifically, cities no longer listed on the map (technically, Iolcos is listed if you get in close enough), and one where we don't actually know where it was (Phthia) and then I had to go in and mark an important river 'cause you can't really see it on the main map as it was. :P  Plus pick the site of a major plot event that isn't inside a town. ;)

    This one was actually relevant for today; it shows (roughly) the path they followed after landing, with distance measured.  :)  Of course, I was assuming (likely incorrectly) that they could walk that far without meeting anyone else at this particular point in the Late Bronze Age, but...unless there are major LBA archaeological sites along that stream bed that I didn't research enough to find out about, how can any of us even know if there would or wouldn't be people there at that time?  (More importantly, no one is gonna care.  In fact, very few people--if any--are even gonna read this thing.)

    So, this wasn't as good in terms of location research as it would have been to actually go there and see the mountain for myself, but how the heck would I manage to get all the way to Greece?  (Especially in the middle of a freaking pandemic!)  Even if I had the time and money, I couldn't get there because of my health issues, which would prevent me from being able to fly.  (So, technically, if I really had an absurd amount of time and money, I could cross the Atlantic in a boat (which could be an eco-friendly form of travel if it's powered by sails and/or oars) and get to Greece that way, but...yeah, not happening.  All around, just plain not happening.  So unless my condition improves/goes away, I missed my chance of ever getting to see Greece for myself.)

    All told, I have a folder on my hard drive now with two dozen screenshots from Google Earth showing me the terrain where the novel takes place from various angles.  I don't know how much impact a lot of it will have on the final book, since I'm not a very description-heavy writer, but...I feel better about it now that I'm not just randomly guessing what the landscape would look like.

    So, yesterday's total word count was 15,664

    Today's word count is 19,894, which got me up to the end of what was Chapter Two in the original 2014 draft

    The previous draft's version of that original Chapter Two weighed in at 7,238 words.  The new version is either 8,195  or 9,745 words, depending on whether or not the new scene is considered to be part of Chapter One or Chapter Two.  (In truth, the chapters will probably end in completely different places now than they used to...)

    Anyway, tomorrow the kids meet Medeia, so I'm looking forward to that.  :D  She's one of my favorites, and I love taking any chance I get to repair her unjustly maligned reputation.