Nodding in

[pameladean]

Hello. I've gotten to the point where I cannot stand my prose style for a moment. Quite apart from the gigantic size of the as-yet-unfinished manuscript, I keep having to look things up in my other books, and the amateurish mistakes in The Whim of the Dragon, in particular, are causing me to want to find a nice cave and never come out. The Dubious Hills is a little, well, enigmatic, but I don't hate it. Whim is layered, rather like Homer; parts of it are excellent, parts workmanlike enough, and parts are stubborn survivals from my teenage habits of phraseology. Ordinarily I view these fossils with great fondness and amusement, but like many aspects of adolescence, they have become wearing through the necessity of being in such close quarters with them for so long.

I'm beginning Chapter 29 of Going North. Ten chapters ago, I decided that there would probably be about thirty to this book. It's tolerably clear by now that there will be a few more than that. I think the last one, which is more in the nature of an epilogue, will be short, at least by my standards.

I thought I'd offer a few ways of dealing with writerly neurosis before I plunge back into the maelstrom. I find that if I start to write while still in my pajamas, I can fool my brain into thinking that I'm not really working, I'm just dinking around, which resolves the perpetual anxiety of starting up a cold engine. After a while, the conviction that I'm only dinking around leads to reading novels or posting to LJ, and then I go and take a shower and get dressed, after which the Work Day Has Begun and dinking around is permitted only to prevent total insanity or serious aches and pains. Then in the evening I tell myself that I'm just going to do a little revising. This is really the only way that I can make myself write morning, afternoon, and evening.

This book is monstrous. Just monstrous. But it's a benign monster. It only breaks things by accident. So far.

May you all be well.

Pamela

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I am enormously excited by the prospect of reading your benign monster.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

Same here.

I hope this season is treating you well.

[kate_nepveu]

Me three. I will love it and hug it and call it George.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I do similar things with reading for class and paper writing. If it worked for grading, I'd be home free, but such is not the case.

I also like to tell myself "Oh, I'll just poke at it a little."

Good luck maelstrom-sorting. :)

[willshetterly.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for unruly books!

[aedifica]

May you, too, be well!

[lcohen]

i wish i could offer to bring over...something you're not allergic to. like maybe chickpea/potato curry.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

The Dubious Hills sound as if they'll crumble if you tread too hard on them. Sorry, that's how my mind works.

My first thought, btw, was that returning to the cave might be the whim of a dragon.

I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

The Dubious Hills is a wonderful book.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll put it on my list.

[pameladean]

If you can't find it, which is very possible, it's being reissued next summer.

I've gotten a lot of reactions like yours to the name of that place. In a metaphorical sense, they are almost true.

P.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That's good news. I'll look for it then. Thanks.

Novels

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Best of luck dealing with the chaos, both outside and in. There are times that I actually feel glad that not only do I not finish novels, I never even come close; this is such a time. I can far too easily imagine the frustration of being 9/10 done with a big project and finding out that the last tenth is surrounded by a great big firewall that has to be dealt with before I can possibly finish this last tenth. Warm reassurances, in any event. You have finished other projects and you will finish this one.

Nate

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

You have walked into this slough before. You have walked out of it before. And the trumpets have sounded for you on the other side.

May you be well and joyful.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I dunno if it helps, but I've always loved your prose style. You and Cat Valente are some of my favorite wordsmiths.

Have you read Cat's books?

[skzbrust.livejournal.com]

I certainly know that feeling of hating one's earlier prose, though (predictably) I can't understand how YOU could have that problem. I had an epiphany a few years ago that helped a little: I realized that when I was looking something up in an earlier book and was not cowering and cursing and wishing to unwrite it, that meant it was probably all right.

I am so very much looking forward to reading this one.

[herefox.livejournal.com]

If it helps at all I squealed when I found out that you were working on Going North 'cause I totally wanted to know what happened after The Whim of the Dragon. There is much bouncing while anticipating reading it.

I do the same thing you do with writing with my household chores. If I dig in right as soon as I get up on the weekend and do them my brain doesn't catch on it's not doing something fun till I'm almost done.

Yay, monsters!

[nahs386.livejournal.com]

I happen to like monsters, thank you very little. I loved "Jabberwocky" and "The Snark Is a Boojum" and all of that other nonsense. I have a monster still living under my bed--a small phantasm left over from my childhood. I have him quite tamed now, and he only has minor skirmishes with the cats. If you'd like to give yours a temporary home, I will be more than happy to reserve space for it.

P.S. I personally prefer the term "fiddle-farting" when I am woolgathering / working.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I, for one, am looking forward enormously to reading this when it is finished.

love

Catherine

[samsarra.livejournal.com]

I second the remarks that you are one of my favorite authors, Pam. Just your post about writing had me snerking and gasping with laughter so much I had to read it outloud to my fiance, who concurs. You are a spectacular writer. Can't wait for the finished product!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

a little, well, enigmatic

*giggle* But in the best possible way. And I love Whim too.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Hello. I've gotten to the point where I cannot stand my prose style for a moment.

I would never for a moment wish you pain, but I have to say that I found this enormously comforting and reassuring, since I have spent a great deal of time feeling the same way about my own prose. Even with this revision, I'm having to say to myself over and over, "Everyone who has read this book thinks the prose is fine. The STORY is what you're supposed to be revising."

And then I spend another half hour tinkering with one paragraph of prose.

[wickedwhich.livejournal.com]

Hello there! Just wanted to drop a comment to give a wave and let you know that I friended your journal.

A friend directed me here because I've just moved back home to Minneapolis and I'd like to get in tune with local writers and events and all that fun stuff. I'm excited to see that you're on LJ; I look forward to keeping up-to-date with your writing!

[pameladean]

Welcome! I won't be doing anything about friending anybody until this book is done. In any case, I don't do very many locked posts.

It's always nice to see people call Minneapolis "back home."


P.

[wickedwhich.livejournal.com]

It is indeed! :)

Happy holidays!

[ladyjaguar.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, the same qualms apply to non-fiction as well as fiction. I look back at some earlier stuff (magazine articles, mainly, for very small magazines) and cringe a bit. But, it's evolution in action (can I say that word in public any more? [wicked grin]).

Of course, the problem with non-fiction is trying to keep it from being too dry, especially with the kind of thing I write. Current project is a guidebook for those researching in the non-federal censuses of Florida, from the Spanish colonial censuses to the state census of 1945. Not exactly page-turners!

I will look forward to Going North. Living here in Florida, I would look forward to going north, any time! I'm tired of heat! heeheehee.

Much good luck with it, and Happy New Year, too!

Karen Rhodes
(of FIDO Writing and Bardroom)

[m-stiefvater.livejournal.com]

Sigh! I just found your blog . . . I love Tam Lin (drools). It's what all us authors should aspire to. :D