Fuzzy about the details

I know i’ve done some writing in the last week. I know i’ve made a lot of decisions about which new pc, where to put it, how to store my backed-up stuff, and what to do while unable to get at anything to type on. Definitely i’ve lost two or three days of unbacked-up Slog, which i’ve retyped with a resolution always to email it to myself as soon as it’s hit the keyboard; and lost a few poems, but with those i’ll have to look at what’s backed up before i’m sure what i need to retype.

I also know i’ve scribbled about 500 words of the Slog, which is a little way into Chapter Five (not much, but it’s been havoc here – i’ve only typed it up in WordPad so don’t know the word count), and one or two (or three or four? it all blurs…) poems:

• Devil of dust (not sure about that title)
• Better things (doggerel, but the rhyming and scansion are correct) – i may blog that
• Cataract, which i may retitle Rapid, this morning

Deciding whether to do anything with those book reviews or not.

Another delay, which i’m glad to do, has been preparing a blogpost i’ve promised someone i’ll publish asap.

This weekend has stretched to three or four days Slogless, and i have found that the third day is when the impatience to get back to it turns into feeling comfortable with normal life that doesn’t involve it. Danger! So i’m going to be disciplined later today, not easy with a loud son off school cos snow has stopped getting there, but possible.

When i think about it, i’m really excited about the Slog, not just that i’ve got this far but in a can’t-wait way, about where it’s heading. One worry has been that the premise was too thin – they say know the theme but i haven’t had it clear in my head. And now it’s coming, another layer of meaning is filling itself in behind the story (not in what’s on the page, but what’s to come). The meaning-of-life layer, which readers won’t have to ‘get’ but which will add depth if they do (think Animal Farm, except my lower layer isn’t political, more metaphysical). This is exciting.

Plus i’m more comfortable with how the strands of plot i’ve already set in motion will tie together – tie not as in knot, but weave.

And i feel i know most of the characters pretty well as people, and i’m getting fond of them, which helps with the discipline, as i look forward to spending more time in their company. Apart from the one i’m scared of.

This is both a relief and hugely tantalising as i have to wait before seeing it unfold! I’ve never got through a story so slowly before, not one that held my interest – cos i’ve only read them before, and writing’s far slower. In this respect, yep, it’s a bit like pregnancy, though i’m not finding any aspect of writing very like pregnancy.

Another part of me is disappointed, cos i wanted to write a grown-up novel. This isn’t terribly grown-up, on the surface, though it won’t be for children. Again, think Animal Farm. I keep getting snippets of what could go in the blurb on the back cover*, and one of them is:

A light-hearted (though not lightweight) romp** through a not-quite-Dickensian, not-quite-Arabian-Nights world of intrigue, surprises, and dressed-up animals

(I don’t even like dressed-up animals, Rupert the Bear and that lot.) Otoh, Animal Farm is pretty grown-up if you’re a grown-up, it just looks childish when you’re a child.

I’ve got myself all fired up again.  🙂

But i have some dead houseplants that i need to do something with, and have just remembered my lunch. Oh, prioritising, prioritising.

 

* They do say visualise the end product of your success made real.

** Romp isn’t the right word. The story fairly careers headlong, though. To my surprise – i’ve always been good at dialogue, bad at plot and pace.