Thud: Above; The Bit Where We Traumatize the Author

[leahbobet]

June 19, 2008 Progress Notes:

Above

Words today: 2000.
Words total: 51,500 MS Word, 63,000 SMF.

63,000 / 85,000 (74.1%)

Reason for stopping: I don't think I can take much more tonight.
Liquid Refreshment: Water.
Munchies: Rosemary white bean soup and a raspberry muffin.

Darling du Jour: "You found her," Beatrice says, and the misery comes back up, the misery takes me down through every limb for a full five seconds by the kitchen clock before I remember what I'm here for, stand straight and strong, stand like a missive come from one Safe place to another and not a boy who's broke all the things he meant to guard.

Words Matthew Won't Admit to Knowing: N/A.
Mean Things: Violence. The banality of evil and the terrible boredom of suffering.
Research Roundup: N/A
Books in progress: John Crowley, The Solitudes.
The glamour: Today was full of glamour: a final exam that I am pretty sure I did well on, the arrival of my new Threadless tees, some grocery shopping, forward motion on the new desktop thing, the making of the rosemary white bean soup and the muffins, some errandry around the house...

---

Well, now I know why I've been mopey, depressive, and restless for most of the week. This is the part of the book where Matthew most devoutly wishes that we Do Not Go There. And he's gonna make that known to me, by showing me precisely, with no emotional insulation in place, why he wishes we Do Not Go There.

Yes, folks, this is the Bit Where We Traumatize the Author. Because nobody knows one's own flinch buttons like...oneself!

Readers of my previous full-length drafts know alllll about the Bit Where We Traumatize the Author. They can probably pick it out to the scene. I, apparently, have forgotten about it. Granted, I haven't gotten this far on a novel since 2005. I bet I'll forget about the thing where it's OHMIGOD so much to do no room aaaaah panic panic oh wait that only took a paragraph when we get there too.

At least I didn't make any important life decisions under the influence of The Bit Where We Traumatize the Author.

I think I'll just go lie down now.

Comments

[pwyrzykowski.livejournal.com]

Hey. Your book is sounding increasingly interesting. I really like the bits you post up, but that's no surprise, your use of language was always what I liked best about your writing.

I think you should get that grant you applied for. There are few authors I've read with your gift for language, and that should outweigh any prejudices the panel might have regarding genre writing. On the other hand, I have heard that the grants process is less than objective, so who knows.

My second book is a struggle. I think it's better than my first, but it's going at the speed of one paragraph per day or so, which is frustrating. Life keeps taking over.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I'm really hoping the grant comes through -- even though it'd be maybe...six weeks of living expenses? there's a certain validation to the thing, and hey, it'd probably mean being able to take some (short) time off and work hardcore on the beast.

Yes. Life with the doing that. :/

By the way, I tried to find your first on Amazon but the name-misspelling defeated me. You're launching it here though, right?

[seabream.livejournal.com]

Urghl. For the art! *~* Sorry. This wouldn't happen to be the overtly fantastical novel with silent gondoliers that mrissa wants would it? Or no, that one was shorter I think.

I admit that often when I'm reading a particularly tough part of a book, my usual emotion with respect to the author is usually admiration - for the craft, for being able to evoke that atmosphere and feeling. Now I can add sympathy for the author for not only reading that passage, but going through writing it.

Congratulations on the exam anyway. And those are some neat tees. This photo (http://media.threadless.com/product/619/view3.jpg) from the "Reach" images looks like a story to me.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Nope, this is a different novel. This is the book about a boy who grew up underground and a girl with bee wings. The gondoliers, alas, have gone on Plot Strike so I went on Writing Them Strike.

Hopefully, with this difficult bit? I will pull it off. There's a balance to these things, and it's hard to keep...

[wirewalking.livejournal.com]

Dude. We DO have the same taste in Threadless! Oddly, I am unsurprised by this development.

Absolutely buying your book when it comes out, btw. Yep indeedy.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

If I can sell it!

(There are some other things on Threadless I love, but was thwarted by their lack of a Girls' 2XL in stock. Alas.)

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

Bad Matthew. No Biscuit.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, if someone was shoving me through hell and a half I'd bite them too. *g*

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

This is true, but he still can't have a biscuit.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Hee. :)

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Standard friending advisory, nased on delta_november's rec...

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Welcome, and likewise!