you know you're feeling antisocial when ...

[truepenny]

even LiveJournal is too much effort.

My deadline for Mélusine is February 1st. I'm halfway through this final fly-zipped-and-hair-combed pass, and it's like walking to Bolivia barefoot. The part of my mind that wants to be A Writer is wigging out; the part of my mind that Writes is actually well past the burned-the-t-shirt stage. I don't even hate this book any more. I'm just TIRED of it. But then there's the performance anxiety. And I'm stuck in the middle.

I have been sleeping like it's going out of style, and I'm still tired. Also? Extremely fucking cold. And foul-tempered. So, really, y'all should probably be happy I'm lying doggo.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Dude! I love the Melusine myths. And The Wandering Unicorn just doesn't cut it.

I *knew* you were a person of excellent taste.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh, er, sorry. Mélusine is the name of the city in which about half the novel takes place (my publisher's choice of title, not mine--although goodness knows it's better than anything I was coming up with). There may be connections to the myths, but if there are, they're all subconscious and subtextual. Sorry.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

You sound so distraught about the whole thing that I cannot help but offer up Miranda Otto as consolation.

There, there.

Okay, really, I am going back to work on my horribly overdue project now.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You couldn't persuade them to call it The City Melusine instead? Because then it would reference Christabel LaMotte's The Fairy Melusine and also sound more interesting to people like me and not confuse people like Mely.

Good luck trogging through it. And do post, I miss you.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

So, really, y'all should probably be happy I'm lying doggo.

No! Not happy! Sad like a spoiled child! We miss you!

Except I know the book is what's important now, and getting it done. When it's done, do you get shoes?

[kate_nepveu]

I've been wanting to hibernate for at least two weeks, so I know something like the feeling. Eat comfort foods, take moderate amounts of physical activity, wrap up well, and good luck.

[pameladean]

You have my profound sympathy. I am actually having flashbacks to the revision of my first three novels, since I'm writing a sequel to them. Sometimes I think it's just an inherently crabby process. I felt quite sure my editor was right about the requested changes and that they would make the book better, but that didn't make them any more pleasant to do.

You'll get there, though.

Pamela

[heresluck]

I have no writerly consoling things to say. Instead, I offer soup, as I am wont to do. Pick a soup (split pea? beef stew with barley? red lentil with lime?) and a day, and I'll make you a nice nourishing lunch.

[marith.livejournal.com]

*drops good wishes, fuzzy angora blankets and tureens of your favorite hot soup down the mole hole*

(Er. Sealed tureens. Not soup-grenade ones.)

[renenet.livejournal.com]

But Bolivia is south, so that's downhill, yes? Oh, right. You're not John Rhys-Davies as Treebeard, so that's probably not very helpful, is it? Okay, then, just general support and a reminder that you RULE!

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

My partner, Martin, just gave me a copy of Edward Gorey's "The Unstrung Harp". He said every writer should have it. He's quite right - see if you can find it at the library, or something. In some ways, it's a "read once" - unless you are a big Gorey fan, like I am. But it addresses your situation beautifully and succinctly, with Gorey's own wry humor.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Not only is it repulsive to the eye and hand, with its tattered edges, stains, rumpled patches, scratchings-out, and scribblings, but its contents are, by this time, boring to the point of madness.

I love The Unstrung Harp even more than I love the rest of Gorey's work. Thank you for reminding me of it. It is, as always, almost painfully a propos.