This, my friends, is Hour of the Hag. Each sticky is a scene. Notes in black are what currently happens in the scene; notes in pink are things I have to change or add. Pink stickies are scenes to add. Blue for Maksim’s POV, green for Lissa, white for Nick, and yellow for poor orphaned Jonathan who really shouldn’t have his own POV scene, since there’s only one of it. I’m surprised by how even the scene distribution is. I am unsurprised by how much more I have to do before I can call this thing done. This sticky-map is for the transition from draft 2 to draft 3 and final. I don’t have much sense of how long it will actually take–weeks rather than months, but other than that, it depends on how much I wallow. I have three vac days to kick it off. Hard burn to April–I’d like to get it in the post to agents by May. Oh, and behind the sticky-map, that thing is a pillow with a carrot on it. […]
In which I am expensive and pretentious
…according to my boss, who saw me eating sushi for lunch again. I asked him what on earth one was supposed to eat for lunch–ham and cheese? (Most likely with my eyebrow raised.) And thus, another delightful epithet to add to my little collection (which, in case it is not obvious, consists of insults that actually bolster my self-opinion). How did I ever last in the wild? I have nothing at all to report from the front. I am vacationing someplace far behind the lines right now. No writing is required until my (figurative) stitches come out, and so I am lounging around my clean house, julienning vegetables and watching Queer as Folk. (When I am not working at my actual job, of course, which does not give extra vac days to recover from the brain-fever of novel-completion.) For Olinka: the Final Chapter Playlist. I thought about annotating these a bit, since some of them are there for abstruse creative reasons; then I decided instead just to let you wonder. “Go Into the Water” – Dethklok“The Gem” – Priestess“Pharaoh” – Richard Thompson“Real Thing” – Cypress Hill and Pearl Jam“Kryptonite” – Three Doors Down“Sing a Little Hymn” – Two Hours Traffic“Tonight, […]
After the Deathmarch
This is the third time I’ve finished a novel. The first one, you’ll never see… I was fourteen when I finished it, and it was full of horrors. I had recently watched Romancing the Stone and I remember loving the opening scene in which the writer finishes a book and pours herself a celebratory drink. Since my parents weren’t drinkers and I was a kid, all I could find to drink was a decade-old bottle of cheap cherry brandy from the cooking cupboard. It was vile, and perfect. The second novel is the Dickensian Fantasy for which this blog is named. It’s not finished any more–it’s back in the shop for a major adjustment–but the night I completed it was a momentous one. I finished late on a Saturday evening, and two very kind friends took me out for a burger, and after they went to bed I spent at least two hours wandering the city alone and wide-eyed. The third, the just-completed Cossack’s Kin, was a bit of a grind at the end–I found myself getting mired in the difficult emotional territory my characters inhabited, and by the time I wrote the last words, I was thoroughly glad to […]
Novel Deathmarch, Day V: which is the last day
Number of words: ~5000. Distance to finish line: Nothing. That’s right. Toodle-oo, bitches! All done! Favourite sentence: “Maksim watched the bright light dawning over the aerodrome, and sat very still until the flight was called.” Why it’s my favourite: because it’s the LAST one, damn it. Total length of book: ~60,000 words. Short-ish, especially compared to the last one. It will probably get a bit longer with revisions. Number of hours at the keyboard today: 13 Ibuprofens: 2 Coffees: 2 Sustenance: bread. Workouts: climbing last night, and I was so shattered that my hands couldn’t hold my water bottle. Even an hour later they couldn’t hold my beer. Fortunately they were recovered by today, enough to be able to type. Pretty things: being done. Maybe later I’ll wank about this some more, post my final chapter playlist and expose all the stupid workings of my recalcitrant brain, but for now, I’m so damned tired. And hungry. And… thirsty 🙂 […]
Novel Deathmarch, Day IV
Number of words Thursday: 5000 Favourite sentence: “She wasn’t my girlfriend,” Gus said, hanging on to the doorframe. Pretty things: Stella’s hair, jasmine, church windows Horrible things: a hot plate mounded with melted plastic and scorched food Distance from finish line: ~10,000 words? Cups of coffee: 3 End-of-day rewards: dinner at Czehoski, but I was too keyed up to eat much Last night’s dream: a day which began with a full-colour premonition that I was going to lose my eye to shrapnel from a bomb blast. The day included multiple bomb scares, each one causing me to wonder if my premonition was about to come true. It ended with a walk past a swimming pool which contained an enormous unexploded shell, which was clearly about to explode and obviously, finally, take out my eye. Fortunately, this finally gave me enough of a jolt to wake me up. Grateful feelings: your husband listens while you discuss, at great length, the scenes you’ve written that day; your writer friend texts you a reminder to turn off your internet connection and get cracking. […]
Novel Marathon, Day III
Number of words last Friday: 2500 Favourite sentence: “They’d even started to fight like sisters.” Pretty things: alstromeria, a bowl of pomegranates Horrible things: pepper spray Distance from finish line: not quite sure, but at least it’s not 20,000 words any more Cups of coffee: 2 Workouts: 1/2 hour of curls, pushups, and not-quite-chinups End-of-day rewards: Beast, at the Horseshoe, and it was indeed rewarding. Sinking feelings: once again you’ve walked into your own drama, and all the lovely distractions in the world won’t help you get to the end of it. Nothing for it but to put on that song that always makes you shudder, and think about the year of the dragonfly. Grateful feelings: your husband comes home from work and washes the dishes so that you can keep working. That’s love. Thanks, babe. […]
Novel Marathon, Day II
Number of words yesterday: 5500 Favourite sentence: “In the hour of the hag, she woke.” Pretty things: a froth of blossoming vines; a former lover in South Africa; aubergines Horrible things: thumb + exacto blade; a mummified baby found in a mass grave in Greenland Contribution by Famous & Important Canadian Writer encountered in coffee shop: “green plastic Easter grass” Contribution I made to Famous Writer’s short story, in exchange: correct spellings of “transcendent” and “its” Distance from finish line: still 20,000 words (it’s a moving target) Cups of coffee: 3 Workouts: 0 (boo–lazy) End-of-day rewards: Zombieland, Rueda, new Clutch album, cocoa-chili pasta with sweet potatoes, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, leeks and toasted pepitas (because my genius burns through carbs like nobody’s business) Today’s Agenda: Chin-ups, push-ups and curls (1/2 hour) Water plants (10 min) 6000 words (12 hours) […]
Novel Deathmarch
Coming soon to Casa Clairification. Thursday, in fact. Today does not count as part of the Deathmarch because it was really more of a Household Stuff day. Also a Day of Roasted Vegetables. What am I doing roasting vegetables when I have a Novel Deathmarch in the works? …um. Good question. I’m going now. […]