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dr_pretentiousI've been back long enough now to run laundry, figure out which of my tutoring clients are still on hiatus next week for vacation or the 1st week of school, and settle back into domestic harmony with the spouse. I even made a bit more progress on the Writer's Weekend program correspondence. The one thing I'm absolutely certain I won't be able to catch up on is the 4 days of my friends list that got away from me. If anything miraculous, disastrous, or hilarious has happened to you since Thursday, please let me know in comments here.
Just when I was wondering whether my writing rituals still worked, today I finished the Rildis chapter in one sitting. Well, sort of. It still has one of those little placeholders left to fill. This particular [VERSES HERE] marker requires that I come up with one or two short verses of a bellicose sea chantey. So here I am with a battered secondhand collection of sea songs (Burl Ives, 1956), trying to get the verse structure into the backbrain. With any luck, I'll compose it in my sleep and write it down in the morning. Or not. It used to work for sonnets. Anyhow, the hard part is done. I think the causal links all make sense, the characters do things and stuff happens on almost every page, and the girl cooties are suitably contagious.
Now there's just one more Haldur chapter left to fix, and Vol 1 Part 2 will be in good working order, at which point the first half of the book will be sufficiently revised.
The second half will, goddammit, be done by the end of October, because I plan to use Nanowrimo to crank out a zero draft of the prequel. The trick won't be to get up to the word count goal; the trick will be to come up with a version of the story I want to tell that's short enough to fit in a 50,000 word zero draft and a 90,000 word fourth draft. My brain is so weird. I can write kickass sonnets and pretty good sestinas, but once I get past 39 lines of verse, I skip straight to 400+ pages. Do I have all-or-nothing-thinking issues? Oh, just ask the spouse.
Just when I was wondering whether my writing rituals still worked, today I finished the Rildis chapter in one sitting. Well, sort of. It still has one of those little placeholders left to fill. This particular [VERSES HERE] marker requires that I come up with one or two short verses of a bellicose sea chantey. So here I am with a battered secondhand collection of sea songs (Burl Ives, 1956), trying to get the verse structure into the backbrain. With any luck, I'll compose it in my sleep and write it down in the morning. Or not. It used to work for sonnets. Anyhow, the hard part is done. I think the causal links all make sense, the characters do things and stuff happens on almost every page, and the girl cooties are suitably contagious.
Now there's just one more Haldur chapter left to fix, and Vol 1 Part 2 will be in good working order, at which point the first half of the book will be sufficiently revised.
The second half will, goddammit, be done by the end of October, because I plan to use Nanowrimo to crank out a zero draft of the prequel. The trick won't be to get up to the word count goal; the trick will be to come up with a version of the story I want to tell that's short enough to fit in a 50,000 word zero draft and a 90,000 word fourth draft. My brain is so weird. I can write kickass sonnets and pretty good sestinas, but once I get past 39 lines of verse, I skip straight to 400+ pages. Do I have all-or-nothing-thinking issues? Oh, just ask the spouse.
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tie her up in knots with a page-count limit! tie her up in knots...
Date: 2005-08-29 10:56 am (UTC)ot1h, you could simply write new lyrics for an existing chanty; so long as it scans, it'll sound good. (and iirc, that was done a lot anyway.)
otoh, beltressin fleet chanties probly should be different than ours. life aboard ship is very different than during the real age of sail. not only is there simply a lot less heavy work per person (simpler rigs and large military crews), but the conditions are much less miserable. the sea is not nearly as much of a threat to them, nor do the men seem to be subject to the sort of casual brutality found in either hm royal navy or most merchant fleets.
the fleet crews are probably still struggling with hasilra's reforms -- an entire musical tradition that dealt with the old fighting styles either was junked, or is sung with nostalgia for the Good Ole Days. not to mention the mess of the crown house conquest of old beltressa should have made to the fleet's even older musical tradition. it's hard to sing of the joys of raiding when you're sposed to be in charge of Your Very Own Empire.
really, close enuf will do; it's a tiny, throw-away detail. we wants draftses to reads, they are precious to usss. :)
Re: tie her up in knots with a page-count limit! tie her up in knots...
Date: 2005-08-29 07:33 pm (UTC)Re: tie her up in knots with a page-count limit! tie her up in knots...
Date: 2005-08-29 10:05 pm (UTC)