"I'm sick of sitting round here trying to write this book"

[pameladean]

EDITED TO ADD:

I seem to have conveyed the impression that Fourth Street was mean to me, or contained people who were mean to me, or that the convention disappointed me in some way. This is not at all what I meant. It was a wonderful convention and I am very much looking forward to the next one, when I will be forewarned about the contents of my head and able to deal with them with more equanimity.


I keep starting LJ entries and abandoning them because I get into convoluted descriptions of events I'm trying just to list sparsely.

Come to think of it, that's a lot of my problem with this book. Finding a shape to put the first volume into has been exceptionally difficult, but I think I have finally found it a nice Jello mold, in an abstract shape that might be a library, or a unicorn, or an emotional situation. I have not, however, really made the text any shorter. Once I'm done with writing the (new) last chapter, I'll go over the whole thing from start to finish and see if anything can be cut. I'm talking about entire paragraphs, not a stray word here and there.

Other things I've done this summer have included:

Attending Fourth Street Fantasy Convention. It was good for my writing and my brain, but dealt a number of emotional and intellectual blows that I'm still wrestling with.

Gone to Itasca State Park with Raphael. We had never before seen so many dragonflies there. They were flying up from the road as we drove along, every few feet.

Coopted Eric to help me make gobi paratha for David, a fulfilling a rather old promise.

Hiked in Wild River and St. Croix State Parks with Raphael.

Gone to Pike Island with Eric.

Cursed the book a lot. I had better get back to this, as the deadline for Volume 1 approaches and I still have no title. My editor may yet be sorry that she made a CERTAIN ALLEGEDLY HUMOROUS REMARK ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD CALL BOTH VOLUMES. I mumble darkly and return to my toil.

I do read LJ and do think about all of you.

Pamela

Comments

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Waugh--I wish Fourth Street had been perfect for you, and hope it was Good Enough. (I mostly thought it was too damned short!, but what can you do?)

If you call the first book Going North, the title of the second could have a parallel/contrasting sort of structure: two words, the first a gerund again, but one that's not about moving. Like, say, keeping or watching or holding.

(Just, you know, a mumbley thought, without having read the material in question, so, hey, what do I know?)

May it go well, and briskly--I want to read it!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that, not that I've read it, either. Going North and Keeping Pace? Going North and Standing Still? Going North and Facing South? Going North and Turning Back? Going North and Hiding Title?

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Actually, I had that exact thought, and I came up with what I think is a good title: "Finding [Spoiler]".

(Actually I think it's only a minor spoiler, and I'll put the whole thing here in ROT-13: Svaqvat Enaqbycu.)

[pameladean]

That's nice and descriptive but doesn't altogether strike me as titley enough. Also, since the object in question doesn't need the verb in question yet by the end of the first volume, it seems a little premature. I actually quite like your verb, though, and might pair it with a more abstract noun, if I could think what.

P.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

What I meant was that you could use Going North as the volume I title, and my suggestion as the volume II title.

[pameladean]

It was better than Good Enough, truly. And certainly much, much too short.

Yes, grammatically and thematically parallel titles are a goodness. I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with one that really describes the second half, though.

You can have the first volume as soon as it's in its next intended form, and the second when it is, or all of it together when the latter is done, whichever. I'm pretty sure I've talked to Will about this, but I'd have to look at the email to see what he said he preferred.

P.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

I would love to see volume one whenever it's in a form you're comfortable with. I miss those characters and that world a great deal.