Write-In Times, And A Paean To St. Ursula

[dr_pretentious]

I don't know why I should be surprised by how much I like the project now.

One of my 8th grade students is making his slow way through Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books, so I had the pleasure of rereading The Tombs of Atuan for approximately the gajillionth time. There are so many scenes in which Tenar lacks the emotional vocabulary to name to herself what she's thinking. I love the way LeGuin shows Tenar alternately wracked by conscience, driven by curiosity, terrified for another's safety, and abjectly in love, without ever coming close to labeling those states.

So I've finally figured out how to write the way Stisele experiences fear. She has the word, but until she's in her twenties, she thinks of it as a word for something that happens to other people.

12,383 / 50,000 (24.8%)

I'm hoping I can cross the 20K barrier by the end of Sunday night. Magic 8 Ball says...Ruin is certain. Hmm. Maybe I should stop using the Lemony Snicket Magic 8 Ball.

Here are some times when I am pretty sure I will be at the East Brunswick Starbucks at Route 18 and Tices Lane, plugging away at my manuscript:

Sunday, 12 November, 10pm until I drop
Monday, 13 November, 9:30 until I drop
Thursday, 16 November, 9:30 until I drop
Friday, 17 November, 9:00 until I drop

Company would be very welcome.

Comments

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

There's a Lemony Snickett Magic 8-Ball??!

Re-reading Le Guin sounds like a rather wonderful way of working.

I'm at 14396, according to NaNoWriMo's counter, so I have about 2271 words to catch up with to make my daily word count. I'm hoping that I can do that over the next few days. Dorothy's being amazingly helpful with this, and I'm finding that emailing her my latest chunk of writing is really beating down my horrible fear of having someone else watch me fail.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Dorothy is an excellent first reader.

When I first set out to write the Big Book, I thought I was just amusing myself over the summer while I was between teaching gigs. In the first month, I only told a few people that I was trying to write fiction again. When I did talk about it, I talked about it as one of the items on the long list of stuff I'd be free to do when I was finally out of grad school. You know, when you spend nine years building up a list of things you wish you were free to do, 18 months isn't quite long enough to try all of them.

Anyhow, all that first summer, I didn't show anyone what I was writing, not even Dan. It was only when Dorothy offered to send me some of her stories that I could think about showing what I had to anyone. She gave me great suggestions for the very earliest drafts of Part I.

Her dissertation eventually ate up all her time, so she hasn't seen the more polished things, but I don't know how I'd have got this far without her.

I miss her terribly. Oklahoma is too far away, dammit.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

She is a fantastic reader. She keeps giving reactions and asking questions, and it's making this so much easier.

OK is far too far away. However, Skype + webcam = good.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

My opinion of Skype has gone up considerably this week. Skype sans webcam is mostly frustrating, but I encountered Skype in a household with a webcam a few days ago and got to be part to one of the more entertaining long-distance conversations I've ever had.

Must consider getting a webcam.

[citabria]

I will almost definitely be joining you on Monday!

Entelechy is supposed to be getting together for dinner on Sunday but I have no idea what time, so that's up in the air. I'll be leaving for the LARP convention on Thursday, so I'll be elsewhere until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Hmm, I may try to find a write-in in DE, too.