Well, actually there are harder parts, but I don't like it anyway. I'm still badly wanting to start flipping through the print copy and making changes. I want to finish it!
But I resist, one, because for practical reasons it will mess things up to be making changes before hearing back from my readers. Two, I've come to believe that it's necessary to approach the thing fresh after a break every once in awhile. With a break, the rewrites, revisions, or edits or whatever are more on point--energy gets channeled into reading it critically instead of into convincing yourself that it's awesome. That critical distance is easy enough to accomplish when you're discouraged and procrastinating for a couple weeks, but sometimes you have to force yourself away, and now is a good time to do that.
I made some notes on that story that I poked around on during my last break over Christmas. I really like the story idea, but my heart's not in it. Can't stop dwelling on the novel.
Read about half of the Susan Choi book last night. Definitely liking this better than the third book, but . . . another time when I've finished it I'll write more on this question of digression. Theres a certain characteristic in story-telling--I wrote about it yesterday--that bothers me and that I could overlook in one book but less so in the other two.
Showing posts with label break. Show all posts
Showing posts with label break. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wells Tower and time off
Some time off from the book for the time being. Treated myself to breakfast out and a run to the garden center to get a load of, no shit, manure. We're prepping the veggie beds tomorrow. Planting next week probably.
So, Wells Tower . . . I know, right?
I'm still dragging myself obligingly and unimpressed through last year's savior of the critically praised/commercially successful short story collection, so I've been skeptical of the media narrative on this year's model. I read the first story in the collection the other day--I don't remember the title, something about a vulnerable antihero trying to redeem himself with a fishtank--and thought, more of the same, so what?
Better impression from the title story--"Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned." Yesterday I stumbled on a great source of online audio of authors reading their own short stories at the UK Guardian, including this story by Wells Tower. I've been looking for cheap sources of audio books to rest my eyes more, so I played this story while I cleaned up my office, which had devolved quite a bit while I cranked through draft 6 over the last several weeks. This one, I loved. Very clever anachronistic play which, for me, had the effect of bursting the bubble on a certain kind of linguistic romance/chivalry around American violence.
So, Wells Tower . . . I know, right?
I'm still dragging myself obligingly and unimpressed through last year's savior of the critically praised/commercially successful short story collection, so I've been skeptical of the media narrative on this year's model. I read the first story in the collection the other day--I don't remember the title, something about a vulnerable antihero trying to redeem himself with a fishtank--and thought, more of the same, so what?
Better impression from the title story--"Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned." Yesterday I stumbled on a great source of online audio of authors reading their own short stories at the UK Guardian, including this story by Wells Tower. I've been looking for cheap sources of audio books to rest my eyes more, so I played this story while I cleaned up my office, which had devolved quite a bit while I cranked through draft 6 over the last several weeks. This one, I loved. Very clever anachronistic play which, for me, had the effect of bursting the bubble on a certain kind of linguistic romance/chivalry around American violence.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Done with Sixth Draft--Transitions
I'm calling an official end to this draft, and I'm going to the copy shop this afternoon to print it out for my next readers.
That's a little over 9 weeks of steady work on this draft. When I started, I didn't have a real good sense of the timeline but I definitely wanted to finish this phase before the end of the semester, and I'm way ahead of that. I think I've pretty well addressed the three major problems I identified at the start. I'm not so sure though, and I'm starting to have doubts about other aspects of it, but we'll see what my readers say.
I'm giving it to a friend who is also a writer and experienced at giving critiques and to another friend who is just an enthusiastic reader. And I think I'll have my wife read it again at this point. She's read it tons, but it's been a few drafts and usually she was reading it piecemeal as I worked and revised, so never got one good look at it start to finish when it was standing still. I think she'll be surprised with a lot of the changes since the last time she saw it.
Next . . . I'm not sure. The most organized thing is not to touch it until I have feedback from those readers, but I'm not sure how long that will be and if I can wait. I'll probably take pages back from my wife as quickly as she reads them and start doing sentence-level work at least on that paper copy. It will be nice to get off this computer. (I read an interview with Wells Tower the other day where he talked about have a computer with internet and email for one kind of work and another computer with no internet and email for working on his book. I'm seriously thinking of a similar strategy in the future.)
So, maybe by the end of the semester or thereabouts I'll be set up to start on the next draft during the summer. I have a lot of paper grading to do until then, and I ought to be rustling up more paying work, especially for the summer. Maybe I'll put any writing impulse into short story work. (I've been thinking a lot about that second novel idea and resisting making too many notes so I don't get distracted from completing the first novel.)
The other factor in this transition is news yesterday that means I'll almost certainly be overseas for 5 months a year from now--similar to my 9-week trip last summer. I need to start earning money to make that possible and at the same time I want to make whatever progress is necessary to be done with this book before that. I have a dream that I'll spend that 5 months working on the second novel--it would be the perfect place and perfect situation for it.
That's a little over 9 weeks of steady work on this draft. When I started, I didn't have a real good sense of the timeline but I definitely wanted to finish this phase before the end of the semester, and I'm way ahead of that. I think I've pretty well addressed the three major problems I identified at the start. I'm not so sure though, and I'm starting to have doubts about other aspects of it, but we'll see what my readers say.
I'm giving it to a friend who is also a writer and experienced at giving critiques and to another friend who is just an enthusiastic reader. And I think I'll have my wife read it again at this point. She's read it tons, but it's been a few drafts and usually she was reading it piecemeal as I worked and revised, so never got one good look at it start to finish when it was standing still. I think she'll be surprised with a lot of the changes since the last time she saw it.
Next . . . I'm not sure. The most organized thing is not to touch it until I have feedback from those readers, but I'm not sure how long that will be and if I can wait. I'll probably take pages back from my wife as quickly as she reads them and start doing sentence-level work at least on that paper copy. It will be nice to get off this computer. (I read an interview with Wells Tower the other day where he talked about have a computer with internet and email for one kind of work and another computer with no internet and email for working on his book. I'm seriously thinking of a similar strategy in the future.)
So, maybe by the end of the semester or thereabouts I'll be set up to start on the next draft during the summer. I have a lot of paper grading to do until then, and I ought to be rustling up more paying work, especially for the summer. Maybe I'll put any writing impulse into short story work. (I've been thinking a lot about that second novel idea and resisting making too many notes so I don't get distracted from completing the first novel.)
The other factor in this transition is news yesterday that means I'll almost certainly be overseas for 5 months a year from now--similar to my 9-week trip last summer. I need to start earning money to make that possible and at the same time I want to make whatever progress is necessary to be done with this book before that. I have a dream that I'll spend that 5 months working on the second novel--it would be the perfect place and perfect situation for it.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Back to work after a long break
I'm back to work on the novel and back to this journal after taking a full two months off.
I was out of the country for about 9 weeks, tagging along with my wife while she was on a work assignment. I had the mixed intentions of making it a writer's retreat and also taking advantage of every opportunity to fully experience my time abroad. Obviously "retreat" and "tourism" don't go together very well.
What actually ended up happening is the first two weeks looked a lot like a writer's retreat and then I put the book aside. I worked hard in our hotel room every day those first two weeks and plowed through to the complete the first rewrite of Part 2 and thus of the entire book. That was a big day and a big relief. Then I left the hotel to look around and haven't thought about the novel since.
I ought to be feeling guilty about that I know, but actually I think break's like that are appropriate and good for the book if it's not just a rationalization for procrastinating. The next batch of work--the second rewrite--should be stronger and more incisive because of the distance I've put between myself and the book.
That explains most of the break. Actually I was supposed to return to work a week ago, and since then I've been procrastinating. Partly I've been taking it slow in returning to this orbit and partly I was afraid. I have to build up the momentum and confidence again, and I didn't muster the energy for that last week. Now that I have, with about an hour of work this morning before needing to run some errands, I expect it will take awhile before the work is really going smoothly.
I was out of the country for about 9 weeks, tagging along with my wife while she was on a work assignment. I had the mixed intentions of making it a writer's retreat and also taking advantage of every opportunity to fully experience my time abroad. Obviously "retreat" and "tourism" don't go together very well.
What actually ended up happening is the first two weeks looked a lot like a writer's retreat and then I put the book aside. I worked hard in our hotel room every day those first two weeks and plowed through to the complete the first rewrite of Part 2 and thus of the entire book. That was a big day and a big relief. Then I left the hotel to look around and haven't thought about the novel since.
I ought to be feeling guilty about that I know, but actually I think break's like that are appropriate and good for the book if it's not just a rationalization for procrastinating. The next batch of work--the second rewrite--should be stronger and more incisive because of the distance I've put between myself and the book.
That explains most of the break. Actually I was supposed to return to work a week ago, and since then I've been procrastinating. Partly I've been taking it slow in returning to this orbit and partly I was afraid. I have to build up the momentum and confidence again, and I didn't muster the energy for that last week. Now that I have, with about an hour of work this morning before needing to run some errands, I expect it will take awhile before the work is really going smoothly.
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