bookkeeping

[truepenny]

That short story I was working on is now 3,000 words longer. And that explains why the 3k word version was so very dissatisfying. I'm printing it out now to do the editing (things really do look different on paper than they do on screen, sometimes frighteningly so). Then later this week I can send it out somewhere, plus the two 10k novellas that have come back in the last couple weeks.

Haven't gotten anything more done on the dis. It occurred to me that there's not much point working on it in a scattershot and panicky fashion when, once HL's done with it, I can sit down and work out a proper plan. I'm just digging myself into a deeper and deeper hole. So I've made a couple more notes for the conclusion, but otherwise basically left it alone. I am also not-so-secretly hoping that if I leave it lay a while, it will compost, and when I go back to it, everything will be clearer. Possibly this is a delusion, but it's a comforting one.

Comments

Composting

[(Anonymous)]

I remember with my Ph.D. I left it for a few weeks once and came back to read it after that and it felt completely different. So I think there's truth in the composting theory. (The trick, which I failed to accomplish, is to leave time for this before rather than after the submission deadline...)

Cheers and best of luck,
Sean.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

I am also not-so-secretly hoping that if I leave it lay a while, it will compost, and when I go back to it, everything will be clearer. Possibly this is a delusion, but it's a comforting one.

Composting--lol! I love it. I call the process percolating, myself--when I put everything aside for a while and concentrate on something else, and leave it to my subconscious to sort things through. It can actually produce some amazing results. I fixed an entire chapter structure, without premeditation, one day after letting it percolate for a week...

So, take heart, and trust in the process of biodegradation. :)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The advantage to composting as a metaphor is that it's so non-threatening. Coffee percolators alarm me and I don't know how they work. I don't exactly know how compost heaps work either, of course, but I do know that when my mother puts melon rinds out in hers, turtles come out of the woods to eat them.

And getting turtles and melon rinds in the same cognitive space as my dissertation, while admittedly dissonant, is very soothing.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

The advantage to composting as a metaphor is that it's so non-threatening. Coffee percolators alarm me and I don't know how they work.

That's very true! Though I have to admit, my subconscious alarms me rather frequently, and I don't know how it works either.

getting turtles and melon rinds in the same cognitive space as my dissertation, while admittedly dissonant, is very soothing.

Oh, dear--I now have images of my thesis as a pile of rockmelon-coloured paper being nibbled at by turtles. With tiny little Discworlds on their backs, no less...

Thanks. I needed a good giggle today.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Though I have to admit, my subconscious alarms me rather frequently, and I don't know how it works either.

Okay. Good point.

But I think for now I'm going to stick with my turtles. (And I'm glad I'm not the only one amused by them.)

     Om was still on the table, staring fixedly at the melon.
     'I nearly committed a terrible sin,' said Brutha. 'I nearly ate fruit on a fruitless day.'
     'That's a terrible thing, a terrible thing,' said Om. 'Now cut the melon.'
     'But it is forbidden!' said Brutha.
     'No it's not,' said Om. 'Cut the melon.'
          --Terry Pratchett, Small Gods p. 107

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Oh, that quote! ~collapses in hysterical giggles~

I knew the Discworlds on the turtles had to come from somewhere...

[oracne.livejournal.com]

but I do know that when my mother puts melon rinds out in hers, turtles come out of the woods to eat them.

!!!!!

and again I say, !!!!!

That made my day.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

I'm printing it out now to do the editing (things really do look different on paper than they do on screen, sometimes frighteningly so).

Amen, sister. I much, much prefer to edit on paper rather than onscreen, and get Mighty Put Out when I'm forced to try and do an onscreen edit. (Corporate types are too impatient to wait for verbal quality.)

Plus, it feels so much more REAL when it's printed out.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

"novelists are fond of setting their work aside, like coffee, to 'clear'.!

space enough to stop you being inside the writing, so you can see it fresh

[oracne.livejournal.com]

One more validation post.

Somehow it's easier for me to get an idea of pacing when I look at a printout, along with all the other advantages.