TRAVERSING Z

revision

on process, pt. 2

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Since the holidays, I have been trying to structure my time better: setting internet-free periods, coming up with writing/editing minimums to hit each day  . . . and I plunged into one of those periods when everything I write is utter sh*t. When nothing seems to sound right; when everything I’m revising feels stale; when all the good things I’ve written before feel like something from another age and I will never, ever write that well again.

That kind of thing.

I have been here before, but not with such clarity, as I’d always had the day job distracting me by being capital-S Sh*t as opposed to the little-s sh*t of a bad writing stretch. But now I have lots of time to wallow in just how much I suck. It’s magic, it is.

Be careful what you wish for, eh?

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I am working again, doing some copywriting, and for once it’s a blessed relief to write reviews of stethoscopes (never let anyone tell you writing isn’t glamorous!) instead of just staring at my own stale words.

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I also developed a nasty cold right after the holidays, and I haven’t been able to completely shake it. So I made bone broth, from an old recipe given to me by a woman who was kind to me once.

Making bone broth is a long, slow process. First you soak the bones in vinegar and water to start drawing out the minerals.

Then you simmer it all for hours. 12 hours, 15 hours, 18 hours, up to 24 if you can swing it.

At the very end, in the last 10 minutes, just a blink of the eye compared to the cooking that has come before—at the very end you plunge a mess of parsley into the broth. This, she told me, ionizes the minerals and makes them easier to consume.

I generally stay away from animal products, but I break out the bone broth recipe when I need it, and when at last the whole thing is cooked and ionized and strained . . . it is magic. All the work beforehand vanishes with that first deep swallow and that feeling of good radiating from your belly into the furthermost extremities of your body.

Each time the process feels a little different, and the flavor changes slightly, but it all feels right, and each time I make the recipe I trust it to work as it always has.

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monday update, 2

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So I did not get as far with Talassio as I’d hoped, in part because I realized one scene between London and Venice absolutely doesn’t work as it stands. Also, I got a little skewed with the writing/other projects balance, and I didn’t get enough reading done . . . After so many years of working and struggling to make time to write, the idea of simply sitting down for a whole afternoon to research feels wasteful, so much so I get a little panicky . . .  Which, in retrospect, means it’s pretty amazing that I’ve read as much as I have over the last four years. But I have a lot of little niggly questions to answer now, and that won’t happen unless I dig deep.

On the other hand, I did rework that old story into what feels like a Real Draft, in fact a remarkably short one, so that is no mean feat. Gold star for me.

So this week:

-For Talassio, rework that problem scene and think a little more overall about all the pieces on the board. They have multiplied since the last big revision, I’m glad they’re there, but they feel underutilized. Either they do more or I rethink this “interlude” strategy of maintaining the plot threads.

-Start working on That Thing About Like Opera and Stuff that I outlined three months ago.  Which will also involve research, so again:

-Get some real reading done this week! Another trip to the library may be in order . . .

 

this week.

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So at least for the first month or so, until I get into a routine, I was thinking a little weekly to-do list would help keep me on track:

-For Talassio, I’d like to finish London and Venice this week, revision-wise. So far I’ve been cutting 10% of the wordcount, and that’s with adding scenes in the England section. It feels faster and lighter and more immediate now, all of which are Good Things.

-I am also dealing with the vocabulary issue . . . it’s become apparent to me that I could solve an awful lot of problems with a very restricted sort of conlang . . . but languages are not my thing. So this will be an involved process, but hopefully one that will pay off major dividends seeing as how language underpins, well, everything. Off to the library later today to get that rolling.

-I am waiting for a second round of pages on an as-yet-unannounced story. I do love the proofing process. Hurrah for proofs!

-I had an idea for salvaging an old story from last year that just kept getting too long-winded. So we’ll give that a try, and see if we can actually get a finished draft out of it.