-30-

 journal, shadow queen  7 Responses »
Sep 282006
 

And… book.

I think, anyway. The problem is though, I ended with the climax. No denouement, no catharsis. Now the book is really half of a story, in that there's a sequel (this time I was clever enough to stop at a more commercial length ;) ), so it's normal for not everything to be tied up. Heck, it's normal even for a stand-alone for not everything to be tied up. But ending on the climax feels… weird.

I tried to write a denouement. Wrote 700 words, deleted them. Wrote 1400 words, deleted them. The problem is, any scene I come up with now is actually starting new stuff rather than tying up old stuff, so it all feels like it belongs in the next book.

Rather than worry about it needlessly, I've typed -30- into the manuscript, and right under that a little note to myself: um, catharsis, maybe? You know, for those of us who hate cliffhanger endings?. And I'll worry about that in the revision.

But for now! Book!

let sleeping 'flies lie

 journal, pre-crash, shadow queen, writing life  4 Responses »
Sep 252006
 

:: Random utterance of the day: I call that my "sleepy bear" impression.

:: Last night, in googling family history, I stumbled across a site on the Russian Anzacs, which even has a listing for a William Kalinovsky. My great-grandfather was a William Kalinovsky. Everything matches, father's name and place of birth and occupation and his eventually settling in Brisbane; and there's only the one Kalinovsky on the WWI embarkation roll; so I rather suspect this is, in fact, my great-grandfather. Most bizarre. I thought he'd anglicised his name on arriving on Australia, but his national service papers use Kalinovsky, so now I want to know when the name changed.

:: Still no satchel.

:: I forgot to take into account, when budgeting that I could get this damn novel finished by the end of this month, the way they bog down towards the end. That's what happens when you don't know how everything ties up. This morning I decided that maybe part of the problem is I wrote a snippet of the ending about 10,000 words ago. Oops. That'll have to move. But what to put in the gaping hole?

:: I don't like writing battle scenes. Why did this book have to have a battle scene? Stupid book. Stupid me, letting it have a battle scene.

if you're looking for content, this ain't it

 journal, shadow queen  2 Responses »
Sep 212006
 

There is a cupboard where we keep all the cat toys. (There are a lot of cat toys. Mostly they are feathers and scraps of wool and ping pong balls. Some are more elaborate, like the weasel that came on the "weasel on a (motorised) ball" toy – the cats hate the ball, but the weasel alone is good for killing, apparently. And all the toys live in a cupboard with one of those magnetic "locks".) My cat likes to play more than any other creature in the house, and as a consequence he's always been happy to entertain himself when all others drop away from the game. And as a consequence of that, he knows how to open the toy cupboard and fish out whatever toy happens to take his fancy. Tonight it's the weasel, although I doubt that will be the only toy pulled out by night's end. It's a pity he hasn't twigged to the whole putting your toys back in the cupboard after you've finished with them schtick.

In other news, the last thing I want to do tonight is write. This is because I'm tired. This is also because I'm a little stuck, plot-wise, and uncertain just exactly what the climax and denouement will be. This is disconcerting to say the least. The only thing that will make me write tonight? Is the knowledge that not writing doesn't take me any closer to fixing that little problem. Blerk.

this nagging suspicion that won't leave me alone tonight

 journal, shadow queen  6 Responses »
Sep 172006
 

I am on a roll, I tell you. 3,000 words yesterday, another 2,000 today. Of course, now I've probably jinxed myself. But you know what? That's okay. Because 80,000 words! Some people write whole books shorter than that. (Of course, when I'm finished cutting out the crud in this draft, this book may well be shorter than that ;) )

Roll on the end of September and the end of this novel. And let's pray I can fit the rest of the story inside the 20,000 words I have left to play with.

Random things I've learned lately:

1. If you double a two-year-old's height, you can get a fairly good estimate of how tall said child will grow. Did everyone know this but me? No one else I've spoken to about this seemed surprised. Mind you, all those people had children. Still, the idea boggles me.

2. I am actually capable of writing the phrase like a wibbling frog. Worse, I am also capable of pausing, staring at the phrase in wonderment at my crapitude, and yet still thinking "Well, it'll do for now." Seriously.

still here, still writing (um…soon)

 journal, shadow queen  5 Responses »
Sep 162006
 

Haven't started writing yet today. Given I have to hit 3,000 words today (I took last night off), this is probably not my wisest move to date. I'm somewhat justified in my tardiness by the fact that I had to work this morning. I'm somewhat not justified in my tardiness by the fact that I was distracted by new song tag fields in iTunes 7. Organising my electronic music collection is one of those enormous timesuck activities that I find compelling, mesmerising, and ultimately frustrating.

So, yeah. On with the writing today. Methinks it will be a long night. (Margo, is methinks another banned word?)

that's it. the universe is out to get me.

 journal, pre-crash, shadow queen  6 Responses »
Sep 062006
 

Today: 3,033 words. (I didn't have the dayjob today.) This is the most I've written in a single day for years. Go team me. Of course, it will probably be years again before I match it, but that's okay. Plus, it puts me a little bit ahead for the next couple of days, when I do have the dayjob and will come home with a brain smeared over the inside of my skull and the thinking capacity of a fried aubergine.

To balance out the karma, though: the satchel? Guess what my brother had delivered via an eBay auction today. Go on, I bet you can't. That's right, another satchel. Another perfect satchel. Seriously.

 Posted by at 7:02 pm

the sad and sorry tale of the satchel-hunt

 journal  4 Responses »
Sep 042006
 

The cat is currently tearing around the house in an attempt to communicate just how hungry he really is. Tearing around involves lots of wild cornering, tearing up tufts of carpet if the corner is carpeted, sliding waaaaay out of control and banging into walls if the floor is lino or tiles, jumping on top of any available surface and knocking whatever already occupies that surface to the floor, and generally looking for trouble. Or smooth shiny tabletops with tablecloths that can be decimated. Newspapers also lurk dangerously and must be kept in line. There are also, and this is something I never realised before he came to protect us, extremely dangerous spots on the floor. I'm not sure what, exactly, qualifies these spots as dangerous, since they don't look any different from other parts of the floor that I can tell. But no doubt the cat knows best.

It is just possible the cat is a brat.

In other news, I have been hunting for a satchel, a nice casual satchel of canvas or denim (none of these fancy leathers or nylons, thanks) for, oh, a year and a half now. So far, no luck. Now, I don't exactly live in a fashion capital, and I never get out to the independent markets (mostly because, well, we don't really have any in this city), so I've been largely resigned to the fact that I will never find a satchel I like. But my brother (who is a most fashionable young man) got it into his head that he wanted a satchel, went out looking that morning, and found the perfect bag. And promptly bought the last one available. Honestly. I know I'm paranoid and all, but this is just offensive.

In other news again, my email is down. Completely kaput. My email provider is working hard to get things up and running again, but in the meantime, don't be offended if I don't reply to your email. I'm good, but I'm still working on those psychic powers.

this writing is a funny thing, really

 journal, shadow queen, snakeskin  4 Responses »
Sep 032006
 

The week six clarion story what desperately needs a title is finished. Well, except for the title. This is an immense relief, and I can only anticipate this relief extending into bliss when I find a title I like. (Or even a title at all.) So far I'm looking for quotes, because I think this story needs a lyrical title, but nothing appropriate is springing to mind. Quick, what's a good title for a story with faeries, skin-cookies, and bargains gone awry? I got nuffin.

In order to finish said story by the end of August, I had to put aside the novel for a week. Boy, was that a mistake. When I picked it up again on Friday, I'd forgotten everything. I'd left off in the middle of a scene that should be relatively easy to pick up again: my characters were arguing and there's nothing my characters like more than slinging around a bit of invective and accusations of snivelly natures. So it shoulda been easy to get going again, right? Um, yeah.

Fortunately, today being Sunday, I decided to start the day writing, and to stay tucked up in bed at the same time, and let's just say I've caught up a ways. Enough that I can take time off to do inconsequential things such as, you know, shower. Shop for cat food. Those sort of trivialities.

Unfortunately (for me) I'm going to have to hit 1500 words a day on the novel to get it finished this month as planned. Provided the novel comes in at or under 100,000 words; if it goes over, there's no way I'm finishing this month. 1500 words a day is a little difficult for me, with this novel, so forgive me if things go a bit silent at times.