I've finished the first round of edits on "Shaping Lily" and sent them winging on their way back to the editor — who will doubtless send them straight back with a "Good work! You fixed exactly a drabble of the stuff that needed fixing…here's the stuff you didn't fix back again so you can have another go at that, and while we're at it here's some more!" Because edits are never done in one pass, and fixing one niggle always makes other jagged bits stand out. Writing is in the re-writing, as someone (actually probably various someones) famous has already opined.
Last night, instead of turning back to the poor oft-abandoned faerie novel as I should have done, I worked on a short story. Poor faerie novel: it has been picked up and put down so often it's surely going to have some serious continuity issues. And probably a good few narrative drive issues into the bargain. (Poor me, who will need to fix them!) All my stories get abandoned at some point, because my brain likes to switch to a different problem when I hit the middle of the story.
Tonight… tonight I cannot decide what to work on. And I am getting distracted by Apple Dictionary only being in American English. Why is there no Australian English dictionary? Or at least a British English dictionary? I DO NOT SPEAK OR SPELL AMGLISH, APPLE.
23 July 2009 @ 18:10 |
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Today, determined to finish the first pass of edits on "Shaping Lily", I decided to track my progress throughout the day. In the interests of accountability, you understand.
Read on at your own peril. You have been warned.
9:17: Realise I've been dicking around on the internet far too long already, mostly reading through 6 insane discoveries science can't explain (yet). This is not a promising start to my revisions. Quickly check my to-do list, and remember in a panic all those bloody things I promised myself I'd do today. Realise edits on Lily is therefore not the first thing I have to do today. Decide edits on Lily are the first thing I'm going to do today anyway.
Read more »
19 July 2009 @ 18:49 |
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Last night I stared at "Shaping Lily" with my edit letter in mind, and wondered if it's possible to fix what needs fixing without pulling the story to pieces.
It was a totally vain endeavour, of course, and I knew this at the time as well, but it appears to be part of my process. There is a point in my process — just after I've received feedback on a story but before I've actually started any (further) revisions — when the story hangs in the balance. A point wherein I basically sit staring at the story, hesitating, thinking a lot but achieving nothing. Or nothing material, at least.
Because as soon as I start — as soon as I select a single thread on which to work — the entire story will unravel and in the process a whole slew of other things that require fixing will fall out, and what was once a story will become instead a mess of shredded words scattered haphazardly over my desk. And I will have to examine every word, singly and in context, yet one more time, as I try to weave it all (seamlessly!) back into a cohesive narrative.
All that sitting and staring has its place as well, however. It's a moment of waiting, of zen before the battle frenzy, which fixes the big picture in mind before I get lost in the minutiae.
Which is what it's time to do now.
The Trapeze Swinger (Iron & Wine — Around The Well)
14 July 2009 @ 18:31 |
An email from my publisher today tells me that the mass market paperback version of Shadow Queen should be available for purchase before the end of the year. This means those of you who hate and loathe the trade paperback format, or don't hate it so much as think it's simply too expensive, will have the chance to buy the smaller, cheaper format. Much more suitable for shoving in small bags and reading on buses and trains and planes.
This means the current publication date for the second book, which I've been calling Pledged (but the title is already slated for change), should be hitting shelves around March 2010.
The (first round of) publication edits for Pledged are due to land on my desk inside the next month. At which point I'll probably have to put aside the faerie novel and retreat from the world until they're done, because otherwise they'll never get done and the book won't be out in March because I'll still be slaving away over where to put my commas and everyone who's waiting to find out how on earth Matilde manages to dig herself out of the hole the first book put her in will come and bludgeon me to a paste with their trade paperback versions of the book.
Who Cares Anyway? (The Jackson Code — The Second Greatest Story Ever Told [Disc 2])
18 June 2009 @ 19:23 |
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The copyedit is dead done, long live the copyedit!
At this point I'm honestly not sure I could tell the difference between my novel, and 300 pages of the letter k. Luckily I have an editor who can tell the difference, and is not rendered loopy by the editing process the way I am.
Today…today I get the day off.
Only… I'm not quite sure what to do with all this time. And I have a few stories and novels that still need work, you see… I suspect I shall have to use episodes of Doctor Who to enforce a rest, but you know, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
In other news, today is also my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary.
60 years!
This seems to me an incredible achievement, given I have a habit of running out of patience and tolerance with people much sooner than 60 years, and a temper which sees people run out of patience and tolerance with me much sooner than 60 years.
So here's to you, Cyberpop and not-so-cyber Nan.
Now Three (Vienna Teng — Dreaming Through The Noise)
3 July 2008 @ 18:59 |
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Done:
Still to go:
So close, so close!
It Takes Two (Into the Woods)
1 July 2008 @ 17:56 |
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State of the push-ups:
Week one, day two, and I can now hold the form properly. Can't actually move far while holding the form and thus, for now and until I build up my arm strength, my push-ups are quite shallow. I suspect I shall have to repeat week one. But! progress.
Although sneezing now hurts my abs.
State of the scar:
Today a woman at the beauticians was complaining to me about the basal cell carcinoma she needed to have cut off her face. Guessing (from her constant repetitious complaining) she was feeling a touch worried about the surgery's outcome, I volunteered the information that I'd just had surgery on my face, and pointed out my scar, which she hadn't noticed.
Sadly, it turns out she hadn't noticed because she was a self-centred moron who only wanted to win at the strange game MY CANCEROUS SKIN LESION IS SCARIER THAN YOURS. I kid you not. She told me, in all seriousness, that doctors wouldn't bother to cut off freckles, there was no such thing as a Hutchinson's melanotic freckle, and all but accused me of lying about the scar. Heaven knows why she thinks I'd have a Z cut into my face. For shits and giggles, perhaps? To lift ONE cheekbone slightly higher than the other? Because I'm some kind of obsessive melanoma fangirl?
State of the copyedits:
I am just over halfway through, according to my count, although that doesn't include today's efforts yet.
What with the renumbering of chapters, conversations between my editor and I are getting tricky, and leads to emails like: I've just sent you old chapter three, which is now new chapters nine through thirteen. Also, I had to change old chapter two — I added some material from old chapter four, which is now in new chapter seven (old chapter two).
It's doing my head in.
Onward and upward!
Madeleine And Nine (Mike Doughty — Smofe + Smang)
25 June 2008 @ 17:44 |
It's times like this when I realise, yet once more, I am not a fast writer.
The copyedits continue, and this is about the time I start to wish I didn't have a dayjob because all I want is to finish this edit, and having to get up and go do other things is getting in the way of that. Even if said other things involve earning the money to pay for my food and internet connection and can therefore be said to be, you know, essential.
Tomorrow or the next day, if I can find the time to dig out my camera, I will treat you all to a snapshot of the new scar. (I know, I know, can't wait, can you?) Regardless, I promise I'll stop neglecting you all soon.
Fast As I Can (Great Big Sea — Road Rage)
18 June 2008 @ 21:04 |
A trip to Sydney yesterday (six hours round travel time for, I kid you not, about five minutes with the surgeon) saw the dressing removed and the stitches removed.
I am now the proud bearer of a pink backward-Z-shaped scar across my left cheek and temple. It's a good three inches long and frames my eye rather nicely, and I am definitely going to be telling people it's the result of a knife fight, or a duel with Zorro, or some other such fancy. (I reserve the right to change the story as and when it suits me. I don't wear make-up, so this little sucker is going to be drawing comments for quite some time, and there is no crime more heinous than boringness, right? Right.)
Photos later, when the steri-strips come off.
While visiting said surgeon, I also received the bill for his services. Yowser. Some of it will be covered by medicare and by my health fund, but more of it will not. This is separate to the bill from the hospital and the anaesthetist and the assistant, so I am currently wondering precisely what I can sell to cover the shortfall. It would be ironic, not to mention bad practice, to have to sell a body organ to pay for my face, wouldn't it? 
In the meantime, the copyedits continue, and the deadline loometh. In fact, the deadline do much more than loometh. So I shall be scarce round these parts for the next little while.
I'm A Long Way From Home (Shooter Jennings — Walk The Line)
11 June 2008 @ 10:57 |
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