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I have a complete revised draft of The Goblin Emperor . . . 20,000 words over budget.
This is what one might call a mixed blessing.
This is what one might call a mixed blessing.
This has become ridiculous.
Oct. 28th, 2008 05:22 pmI am declaring a moratorium: I may not start any more short stories until I've finished at least ONE of these eleven languishing stories:
( The List )
( The List )
TIME: 20 min. (the length of Kris Delmhorst's lovely EP, Horses Swimming)
DISTANCE: 2.2 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 71 mi.
NOTES: Again, 6.5 mph or so, and no shin splints. This time, I have the leftovers of a 7 A.M. charley horse in my left calf, and at about minute 17, my right calf began making "Hey what about me?" noises. I don't know, I just live here.
SHIRE-RECKONING: In Buckland! Black Rider left behind. Two miles to Crickhollow.
FYI, I amgroveling slogging working my way through the CEM of Corambis (has to be back in NY the 23rd; I'm on p. 147 of 751; you do the math because I don't want to). So there will be more Due South posts (and another Q&A), but it's not going to happen until after this manuscript is back out the door. (The radio was playing "I Will Survive" in the car yesterday, and oh god I know what she's talking about. I should've changed that stupid lock.)
DISTANCE: 2.2 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 71 mi.
NOTES: Again, 6.5 mph or so, and no shin splints. This time, I have the leftovers of a 7 A.M. charley horse in my left calf, and at about minute 17, my right calf began making "Hey what about me?" noises. I don't know, I just live here.
SHIRE-RECKONING: In Buckland! Black Rider left behind. Two miles to Crickhollow.
FYI, I am
Why, yes, as it happens, the Corambis CEM* is sitting on my desk, due back in New York the twenty-third.
Why do you ask?
---
*Copy-Edited Maunscript
Why do you ask?
---
*Copy-Edited Maunscript
What I haven't been posting about
Jul. 2nd, 2008 10:28 pm(There was no Project Valkyrie today, as the weather was just too fucking gross.)
What I haven't been posting about, obviously, is the revisions for Corambis that are due at the end of the month. I haven't been posting about them mostly because this is the part of the process that is difficult to articulate in a way that makes it interesting to people who haven't read the book yet. You know, when your writer-friend tells you, "I moved the chunk where Gilbert finds the pruning shears in the abandoned mental asylum from Chapter Four to Chapter Two, and OMG it makes the bit with Tabitha and the two ormolu swans in Chapter Three look like I meant to put it there all along!" And you smile and nod and metaphorically pat your writer-friend on the head and try to insert something that looks like a conversation into the conversation.
You know how it goes.
And maybe later, when the book is published and you read the bit with Tabitha and the two ormolu swans in Chapter Three and realize that, yes, of course the chunk with Gilbert and the pruning shears had to go in Chapter Two, maybe you call your friend up and go "OMG the pruning shears! You were so right!" and the two of you shriek and giggle like hyenas who have just found the most sumptuous elephant carcase of their lives.
Maybe.
But my point is, this kind of revising is neither particularly intelligible nor particularly interesting from the outside, and of course the sentence-level stuff even less so. So I'm not posting about it. Just trying to get it done.
I'm also not posting about this head cold, and believe you me, you're grateful for it.
What I haven't been posting about, obviously, is the revisions for Corambis that are due at the end of the month. I haven't been posting about them mostly because this is the part of the process that is difficult to articulate in a way that makes it interesting to people who haven't read the book yet. You know, when your writer-friend tells you, "I moved the chunk where Gilbert finds the pruning shears in the abandoned mental asylum from Chapter Four to Chapter Two, and OMG it makes the bit with Tabitha and the two ormolu swans in Chapter Three look like I meant to put it there all along!" And you smile and nod and metaphorically pat your writer-friend on the head and try to insert something that looks like a conversation into the conversation.
You know how it goes.
And maybe later, when the book is published and you read the bit with Tabitha and the two ormolu swans in Chapter Three and realize that, yes, of course the chunk with Gilbert and the pruning shears had to go in Chapter Two, maybe you call your friend up and go "OMG the pruning shears! You were so right!" and the two of you shriek and giggle like hyenas who have just found the most sumptuous elephant carcase of their lives.
Maybe.
But my point is, this kind of revising is neither particularly intelligible nor particularly interesting from the outside, and of course the sentence-level stuff even less so. So I'm not posting about it. Just trying to get it done.
I'm also not posting about this head cold, and believe you me, you're grateful for it.
I am back home after Fourth Street, which was exceedingly excellent. I will try to post more and better later (although with Corambis revisions due at the end of July, don't count on it), but for now I just want to remark that I listened to Peggy O'Neill's album, Love, Lust, and Frustration, on repeat all the way home, and it is awesome. If you like women blues singers, which I do.
I now have 101 ms pages of continuous narrative of Corambis, or approximately 23,700 words. Most of this past week has been struggling with the effort to write transitions between salvaged bits of text, which, as writing tasks go, is about as fun as sticking your fingers in a pencil sharpener. And I've got some more of it still to do, but I figured breaking triple digits was worth an update.
get behind the mule
Jul. 22nd, 2007 12:20 pmChapter 17: 10,218 words
Summerdown, thus far: 147,926 words
What remains is dénouement and the part where I end this entire four book monstrosity. And then I get to go back and fix everything that's currently broken and put in actual words everywhere I've got [blank].
It may be a Frankenstein's monster of a draft, but a draft I will have by August first.
You may, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaylake says, continue shopping. No need to return to your homes.
Summerdown, thus far: 147,926 words
What remains is dénouement and the part where I end this entire four book monstrosity. And then I get to go back and fix everything that's currently broken and put in actual words everywhere I've got [blank].
It may be a Frankenstein's monster of a draft, but a draft I will have by August first.
You may, as
jaylake says, continue shopping. No need to return to your homes.
T-17 and counting
Jul. 15th, 2007 10:34 pmMy big accomplishment for today is that I got them off the goddamn train.
2,118 words. About half of the second scene of the climax.
2,118 words. About half of the second scene of the climax.
Notes toward a Taxonomy of ...
Jul. 14th, 2007 08:58 am(GUILDENSTERN: Ahem.
ROSENCRANTZ: I don't know how the next scene starts! Shut up!)
peake posted yesterday about this attempt to define a "slipstream canon." Or possibly I mean a "slipstream" "canon." Or, well, here. Have some quotation marks--""""""""--and punctuate as seems best to you.
( for them as cares, click with the clickyness )
(ROSENCRANTZ: There! See? I'm writing. Satisfied now?
GUILDENSTERN: [reading over ROSENCRANTZ's shoulder] No.)
ROSENCRANTZ: I don't know how the next scene starts! Shut up!)
peake posted yesterday about this attempt to define a "slipstream canon." Or possibly I mean a "slipstream" "canon." Or, well, here. Have some quotation marks--""""""""--and punctuate as seems best to you.( for them as cares, click with the clickyness )
(ROSENCRANTZ: There! See? I'm writing. Satisfied now?
GUILDENSTERN: [reading over ROSENCRANTZ's shoulder] No.)
T-19 and counting
Jul. 13th, 2007 10:51 pm525 words. AKA the first scene of the climax. Tomorrow I get into the meat of the thing.
Also a lot of stupid flash games.
Also a lot of stupid flash games.
T-20 and counting
Jul. 12th, 2007 09:06 pm2,219 words
Chapter Sixteen: 6,869 words
Once again, my writerbrain has made sure that I'm the last one to be let in on the joke. Typical.
Summerdown: 137,708
37,000 words to go, give or take. I'm expecting this draft to come up short, which is actually good, because I already know there's about half to three quarters of a plot thread I'm going to have to go back and put in.
Chapter Sixteen: 6,869 words
Once again, my writerbrain has made sure that I'm the last one to be let in on the joke. Typical.
Summerdown: 137,708
37,000 words to go, give or take. I'm expecting this draft to come up short, which is actually good, because I already know there's about half to three quarters of a plot thread I'm going to have to go back and put in.
T-21 and counting
Jul. 11th, 2007 11:08 pm714 words.
Like being covered in BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.
(I can quote Eddie Izzard, even if Felix can't.)
On the other hand, tonight, for the first time, I feel like I actually can complete a draft of this book by August first. Which is a very encouraging thought.
Like being covered in BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.
(I can quote Eddie Izzard, even if Felix can't.)
On the other hand, tonight, for the first time, I feel like I actually can complete a draft of this book by August first. Which is a very encouraging thought.
T-22 and counting
Jul. 10th, 2007 10:20 pm2,120 words.
Lo, this is the chapter of exposition, in which everyone explains everything to everybody.
Found via I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?, these stunning photographs of a fox. (Yes, her human-friendliness is worrisome--as the photographer is clearly aware--but that doesn't detract from the photographs.)
There's a review of The Virtu over here.
Lo, this is the chapter of exposition, in which everyone explains everything to everybody.
Found via I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?, these stunning photographs of a fox. (Yes, her human-friendliness is worrisome--as the photographer is clearly aware--but that doesn't detract from the photographs.)
There's a review of The Virtu over here.
T-24 and counting
Jul. 8th, 2007 10:55 pm625 words
Between the Boring Health Problems and the Not Boring But Knotty Plot Problems, 625 is actually doing pretty well. I may have to smooth out this nuntius ex machina* on the second pass, but that's okay. Writing is not a performance art.
---
*messenger from the machine
Between the Boring Health Problems and the Not Boring But Knotty Plot Problems, 625 is actually doing pretty well. I may have to smooth out this nuntius ex machina* on the second pass, but that's okay. Writing is not a performance art.
---
*messenger from the machine
On, King! On, you huskies!
Jul. 7th, 2007 08:36 pm(1,240 words for today thus far)
Chapter 15: 11,300 words
Summerdown, thus far: 130,839
Approx. 44k to go
One more chapter of set up, then the climax, and then unknown quantities of denouement, some of which is still highly, um, theoretical.
Chapter 15: 11,300 words
Summerdown, thus far: 130,839
Approx. 44k to go
One more chapter of set up, then the climax, and then unknown quantities of denouement, some of which is still highly, um, theoretical.
T-26 and counting
Jul. 6th, 2007 10:36 pm2,132 words.
Where do Felix and Mildmay find these conversations?
o.O
ETA: on the other hand, this is--or should be--one of the great strengths of writing series fantasy. By the time you get to book three or four, your characters should know each other well enough that they can have conversations that deal with subjects other than Saving The World or Star-Crossed Angst.
... okay, yes, if I was writing The Wheel of Time, it would look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
Where do Felix and Mildmay find these conversations?
o.O
ETA: on the other hand, this is--or should be--one of the great strengths of writing series fantasy. By the time you get to book three or four, your characters should know each other well enough that they can have conversations that deal with subjects other than Saving The World or Star-Crossed Angst.
... okay, yes, if I was writing The Wheel of Time, it would look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
T-30 and counting
Jul. 2nd, 2007 08:11 pm3,186 words.
For once, that thing where you sleep on a problem actually worked. I woke up at 5:45 this morning (I think something in my dream woke me, because I thought it was the sound of a cat interfering with the wastebasket, and there was no such cat. A dream cat interfering with a dream wastebasket?) and couldn't get back to sleep. But I could get a start on the scene that was driving me nuts yesterday. I've been writing relatively steadily (for my values of "steadily," rather than, say, Bear's) ever since, and have now finished the scene.
Loud huzzahs.
Mean things: Everybody's worldview is now higgledy-piggledy.
For once, that thing where you sleep on a problem actually worked. I woke up at 5:45 this morning (I think something in my dream woke me, because I thought it was the sound of a cat interfering with the wastebasket, and there was no such cat. A dream cat interfering with a dream wastebasket?) and couldn't get back to sleep. But I could get a start on the scene that was driving me nuts yesterday. I've been writing relatively steadily (for my values of "steadily," rather than, say, Bear's) ever since, and have now finished the scene.
Loud huzzahs.
Mean things: Everybody's worldview is now higgledy-piggledy.
