I'll be back with a new post.
Right now I'm reading through Chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13. 13 is close to a done deal. I wrote it almost intact in the winter/early spring of 2007. I wrote a few others in the same way. When it works that way, it's wonderful. Hope you guys have felt that - it's amazing when it happens. Wish it happened more. Chapter 3, I wrote in one ecstatic afternoon in the fall of 2007. What a head rush. I don't think I changed but a few words here and there. It was that clear coming out, almost like automatic writing.
I thought I was finished with 10 - and then I saw plot holes, and had to fix them. (And I think it may really be two chapters, which will take the even 20 I have to an un-even 21.)
11 and 12 are almost there. Still, as I'm guessing you all already know, that last polishing and checking means everything, and consumes time.
15 is absolutely finished - doesn't need a thing, to my mind anyway, as are several others. 16 needs a tighter ending to it. 17, 18 and 19 may become two chapters, because some may come back out - not sure just yet.
A dear friend (who has a good eye and a good ear for reading, and isn't afraid to tell me when she doesn't like something) has read the last chapter, and loved it. That feels good, knowing home base was worth working to reach.
The plan is - read through the sections of the remaining-to-be-edited chapters, which are distinctive in important ways (to me at least), and edit transitions, etc. as I go.
During the long weekend we have in mid-Octover (11th through the 13th), I'm sequestering myself to read the entire novel aloud, for flow, for rhythm and sound and meaning.
Then, I'll finally be finished.
I'm telling you all this to help myself stick to the schedule. How about you all?
Where are you on your internal schedules?
P.S. I'm really, really hoping my friend will be blogging here soon.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
When I finish 13...
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29 comments:
Friend is travelling soon and will have some time to blog something -- promise!
Thank you, my friend!
I'm glad things are going well and that you are being so disciplined ; ) Your baby deserves it.
I'm stuck in a holding pattern. Everything from here on out depends on others...and I'm just waiting. And waiting. And going nuts. I know I should just start a new project, but the anxiety drains all of my creative energy.
I miss the editing stage ; )
My internal schedule got derailed about ten years back, but with plenty of alcohol I'm doing fine.
Sometimes I feel like I'm turning into another, less funny WO.
Great to hear that your novel is going so well! Looking forward to more posts . . .
Is your anonymous friend ril, by any chance?
Hey guys- it's actually not going so well - because life is biting my butt like a mad dawg.
I have a lot going on - work, weekend travel I have a hard time with, etc. I'd be finished now if I wasn't so pressed for quiet time to finish. It's actually beyond frustrating, to be so close, after 2 and a half years, and not have much time at all to drive toward the finish. It's making me crazy - one of the reasons why I wrote this post- so I'd feel better, knowing I really don't have much longer if I can stay focused in the few hours here and there that belong to me alone.
I'm frustrated and not a lot of fun to be around right now, in person, because wherever I am, I'm really in my head, editing.
I know we all go through this - but it's absolutely maddening.
Good to hear you're at the final stages.
It certainly helps if you're fortunate to have stuff to edit that you originally wrote in one sitting. It's so much easier to see what's going on that with bittier sections.
I've used up all my inspired offerings and am now plodding through snippets interspersed with notes, desperate for some continuity.
Pain?
I'd rather be tied down with chains and buggered by a gorilla.
You are sooo close!!
You go, Girl!!
:-)
And who is this anon friend because I'm getting jealous over here...
;-)
Go, Robin, go! Yayyyy, Robin! *cheerleading for ya*
As for your sucky life right now, three little words: divorce and child abandonment. Just sayin'...
Work has been beyond crazy, new animals, life - I haven't touched my WIP in weeks. Not quite to the editing stage on it yet, but just one last, arduous chapter to go that ties up the loose ends. It's historical fantasy and because of the history, my main characters need to be one place, but because of the fantasy they're somewhere else, and I'm having the dickens of a time working out how to get them where they need to be in the time they need to be there. Hopefully when I can get back to writing for pleasure it will have worked itself out in my head.
Kiersten: maybe this is a good time to do any research for that next project rather than forcing yourself to be creative when you're not feeling the muse.
WO: You're talking about continuity? Somehow, the only word that comes to mind is oxymoron. :o)
I'm having the dickens of a time working out how to get them where they need to be in the time they need to be there...
Groan. I'm having to split my time line into 15 second chunks to make sure it all happens in the right order — and that's without the flashbacks. In the future.
This comment has been sponsored by vex-a-phoenix
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Oh, great. My smiley didn't work. Now I look like a fool.
You guys just kill me - and in only good ways!
Let's keep our fingers crossed for one another,OK?
It looks like I might actually have two or three hours to myself today. If I do, I can finish 10 and move on. If not. I'll be looking for the best high bridge from which to jump. Just kidding, but only barely.
And Whirl, I love your smiley face.
I'm still stuck for time. I need to get Woman in the Wall out of the wall; and I urgently need to edit something else, but it's just not happening at the moment. Frustrating.
Sometimes I feel like I'm turning into another, less funny WO.
Please, no.
I'm trying not to, mckoala, but WO's humor, while strange, is infectious. It's like a virus or something.
Keep chugging, Robin. You'll make it!
*cheers in the background for Robin*
My smiley didn't work. Now I look like a fool.
It's the thought that counts, WO, not your looks. And thank you, I am thoroughly vexed now.
WO's humor is infectious? Freddie, WO, please don't post close to me, OK? I can't get all humorous now - I have too much serious work to do.
Oh no, I posted under Freddie! Quick, someone pass me an eraser!
Too late.
Congrats on being almost there, robin. Yippee!!
You guys are great- love the comments - keep them coming, please, and keep on writing when you can, and when you can't...well, there's always drinking.
Update to you guys and to me, so I don't bog myself down with a lack-of-clear-plan -- turned out I had no time that wasn't filled yesterday with either work-at-work or too-tired-and-barely-functioning by the time I got home.
So- I'm running a few necessary daughter-errands this morning, and then 'me and my laptop' are going to spend the rest of the day in the library that's a few blocks from our house - sitting at a no-internet access table. Same thing tomorrow.
But even so, I'm now close to a week behind where I thought I'd be as of today.
Time is a bitch.
I went to the library yesterday to write - at least two months after I first said I was going to start writing at the library.
It's only a few blocks from my home, so it's not like I had to slog two miles in the snow or the wet heat uphill both ways or anything to get there, but still, I guess I thought I should be able to dig down into my thoughts and write at home as I have in the past. But now I really am close to being out of time - so I went, and it was amazing.
I was there five hours - no phone, no errand-running, no 'oh maybe I'll toss that load of laundry in', no making lunch, no 'can you drive me to....', no getting on the internet and flipping around to keep myself from doing what I need and want to do.
I sat at a study desk in the back of the building - no internet access. Just an outlet to plug in my laptop.
Wow. It was a freedeom-to-write orgasmic experience. If you're having trouble with time and privacy, go find your library.
I was able to edit most of 10, see that it is, in fact, two chapters, make it into 9 and 10 - look through 7-8 and 9 and see that I can most probably combine 8 and 9 to make it 8 alone.
Today I'm going back for 6 hours - to read through what will now be a shaved in half 10, and then dig into 11. And I'm going back this week at least two days after work for a few hours.
I'm still behind my own schedule, but I can see my way clear now.
That was the really good news.
The really bad news is - I'm having another packed to the walls crazy busy week at my work again next week, and I have to drive down yet again for a Friday night and all day Saturday family thing that must be done. But my ass WILL be seated in the library next Sunday, making up lost time, all alone in the quiet.
I'd forgotten just how much I love libraries. If you're having trouble focusing and finding time, please try it.
Back in my dreamy poetry days, I once went to a sauna to write. Actually, no, I went to the sauna to treat myself, and happened to take along a pad and pen just in case I was inspired.
Preconception error #1 — it wasn't one of those dry heat Swiss style saunas. So — lots of steam and lots of wet.
Preconception error #2 — I wasn't alone.
To my considerable credit, I did, in fact, sit and write, in spite of the moisture turning the words to mush the moment they oozed from the biro and the panorama of testicles rolling around in the condensation on the plastic seating.
Fortunately, the epic verse I penned dissolved the next day.
Hey Robin! How's you doing? I'm finally back online at home, it feels like forever. First the computer was down, then the modem stopped working and with the traveling, etc., well... anyway. It's good to see you're coming down the home stretch. Good luck to you!
I'm almost ready to get back to square one. I've stumbled upon some pretty cool plot ideas. I'll have to do a good bit of research before I get started, though. Now that I'm connected to the world again, I can get started.
Stay dialed in, you're almost there, and you've got some interest already, so get it done!
Hey Wood- Happy to see you!
Thanks for the kind thoughts- and right back at ya, sweetie.
I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for my weekend drive down to-see-relative.
This drive down is an especially sad one. My younger brother's friend, a close friend since the time they were little kids in Kentucky, drank down a bottle of vodka, climbed into his car, and shot himself in the head a few days ago. Many reasons - some had trailed him around for a long time. I'm going down into Virginia, where he and my brother had both moved 25 years or so ago, to pay my respects at his wake tomorrow night.
Then I'm spending the night alone on a bed that plays a part in my novel, before it's sold the next day at an estate sale.
This may sound weird, but I'm taking pictures of that bed, and some other furniture, the night before the sale. Call the reason strong memories.
I'll be back Saturday night.
That's awful, Robin. My condolences to you and the families.
I'm making a journey tomorrow myself. My sister called today. The bell has tolled for my father.
The two deaths are juxtaposed in tragedy, with yours being the harder to accept. My father's death was the conclusion of a long, well-lived life, and perfectly natural.
Talk soon... Prayers all around...
Oh, Wood, natural or not, that's a hard thing. I'm sorry.
Jeez. My condolences to both of you.
I will be in big time revision mode also! I think revisions are the hardest part of the writing process sometime.
Good luck to you Robin!
I just read the comments. I am so sorry Robin and Wonderwood for your losses. My prayers to you both.
My thoughts are with you both as well. It's all so fragile...
When I was younger, I was all philosophical about death and contemplated it in all its aspects: the phyical, the metaphysical, the spiritual, et al. Now that I'm older, I know everything I need to know about death: it stinks.
My thoughts are with you both, Wood and Robin.
Thanks, you all. Thanks very much.
I'm back home, and beyond happy to be here.
My guess is, Wood's still gone, but here's hoping he'll be home soon as well.
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