something like progress

[truepenny]

Draft of a short story finished. (Well, except for all the [1], [2], [3] all the way up to [71] where proper nouns (and a couple common ones) go.) I can't tell you how long it is, because I wrote it entirely longhand (although it runs from the bottom of p. 31v to the top of p. 57 in the knock-off Moleskine notebook* I'm currently using. I can't tell you the title, either, because it doesn't have one. (I thought it did, but it turns out the title I thought it had was not correct at all.)

It has given me a lovely example of the moss-troll problem though: Caesarian section. Even though Julius Caesar was probably not born by Caesarian section, the adjective makes no sense in a world without the word "Caesar."

Notice that although this is not the work I should be doing, I am very grateful nonetheless to have a complete draft of anything.

And on that note, I'm going to give this "sleeping" thing a whirl. I've heard it's fun if you do it right.


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*I will not be buying the Picadilly Moleskine knock-offs again, even though they are about 1/3 as expensive. The bookmark ribbons come out, and the elastic does not elastic properly, and both these things get more annoying rather than less over time.

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I happen to be rereading Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar, and happen to have just noticed the other day that she referred to children born by 'surgical section,' which I thought at the time was a nicely commonplace/utilitarian substitute for a culturally specific term.

Luck with the sleep. (I am starting to think I need a sleep icon. Maybe a just-barely-animated dozing Totoro.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"But I guess ve hoped he'd be Norvegian."

Sorry, I should start my jokes at the beginning. It's the one where Ole hears that his and Lena's baby is going to have to be taken Caesarian.

Anyway, yay draft.

[marycatelli]

Actually, I believe it comes from the word "knife" and the association with Caesar sprang from the accidental homonyms.

But since it needs to not look like an anachronism, that's a moot point.

[roisindubh211.livejournal.com]

What do you mean by "moss-troll problem?" I get the Caesarian issue, I was just wondering what the other phrase was in reference to.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Here. (http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/the-moss-troll-problem/)

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations on the draft! Is this one of the short stories from your last first lines meme or an entirely new story?
Gillian A

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Entirely new. It blindsided me last week and refused to shut up until I wrote it.

[heresluck]

Yay progress!

[aranel.livejournal.com]

Am now contemplating what that surgery might be called if one had/knew about Macbeth but not Caesar.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Lady MacDuff's Revenge?

Or, more likely, Duffian section?