Me and my best friend, Louise Erdrich
Aug. 2nd, 2006 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonQuote of the day:
"He who follows frights will be followed by fright."
—Scottish proverb
Writingness of the day:
Today I wrote some more on my new Dos Lunas story, "Ramona! The Chickens!" I did some original writing, and was able to cut and paste some paragraphs from an earlier version into this story for a net gain of 1000 words. That makes the story just shy of 7k and heading south at a mighty fast clip. Somehow I suspicion it ain't going to be a short story.
Another Dos Lunas novelette, "Closes Within a Dream," is currently up on the OWW. I got some interesting reviews, rather mixed so far. It's probably the gentlest story in a rather gentle cycle and I'm well aware of the big objection most folks have to it. I don't necessarily disagree. I just can't decide if it's the kind of story they want it to be, or part of something else. My usual dither when it comes to Dos Lunas. So it's always good to get the objective opinion of others.
All this material means something but sometimes it takes a long while to figure out what. I think when an idea or a setting or whatever grips you in that way you've got to let it follow it's lead. Eventually, I think it will tell you what it really is. I'm not proposing to concentrate just on this idea while it makes up its mind, but I take it out and poke it, it tells me a little more, then goes quiet again. Something will come of it. I just have to have faith in the process. Sometimes that process is fast, sometimes it's treacle-slow. That's just the way it is.
I heard Louise Erdrich talking about her process once, and I must say, it was comforting. She has boxes scattered through the house with novels in various stages of production. One will talk to her for awhile, she'll write until it stops, then put everything back in the box. Some books hurry to be finished, others dawdle, sometimes for a decade or more. It sounded quite familiar.
Significantly, all these Dos Lunas stories are in a folder I keep in with my novels, not in the folder where I keep the stories. That's just where it felt like it belonged. Which tells me something about it's intentions, I guess.
"He who follows frights will be followed by fright."
—Scottish proverb
Writingness of the day:
Today I wrote some more on my new Dos Lunas story, "Ramona! The Chickens!" I did some original writing, and was able to cut and paste some paragraphs from an earlier version into this story for a net gain of 1000 words. That makes the story just shy of 7k and heading south at a mighty fast clip. Somehow I suspicion it ain't going to be a short story.
Another Dos Lunas novelette, "Closes Within a Dream," is currently up on the OWW. I got some interesting reviews, rather mixed so far. It's probably the gentlest story in a rather gentle cycle and I'm well aware of the big objection most folks have to it. I don't necessarily disagree. I just can't decide if it's the kind of story they want it to be, or part of something else. My usual dither when it comes to Dos Lunas. So it's always good to get the objective opinion of others.
All this material means something but sometimes it takes a long while to figure out what. I think when an idea or a setting or whatever grips you in that way you've got to let it follow it's lead. Eventually, I think it will tell you what it really is. I'm not proposing to concentrate just on this idea while it makes up its mind, but I take it out and poke it, it tells me a little more, then goes quiet again. Something will come of it. I just have to have faith in the process. Sometimes that process is fast, sometimes it's treacle-slow. That's just the way it is.
I heard Louise Erdrich talking about her process once, and I must say, it was comforting. She has boxes scattered through the house with novels in various stages of production. One will talk to her for awhile, she'll write until it stops, then put everything back in the box. Some books hurry to be finished, others dawdle, sometimes for a decade or more. It sounded quite familiar.
Significantly, all these Dos Lunas stories are in a folder I keep in with my novels, not in the folder where I keep the stories. That's just where it felt like it belonged. Which tells me something about it's intentions, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 02:53 am (UTC)I have a feeling the like/dislike line might travle down between those of us who want a full, complete self-contained story, and those who know it's part of something larger, and as such self-contained and yet not.
Or..uh..something like that.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 04:41 pm (UTC)