I can hardly wait to be finished with it. I'm probably going to do a disappearing act for a month or so while I write the end. I, too, have really enjoyed chatting with you about it ... although the conversation was a little truncated on a couple of occasions. You're one of the reasons I quite contentedly think I have the most eloquent and erudite readership in the entire fandom.
When I started writing, I couldn't imagine having notebooks of spare ideas or phrases or scenes ... but after five years, I have lots of them.
I practically gasped when I read your phrase 'I had the WORDS.' I can't tell you the numbers of times I've gotten the words just right in my head. It's a little unnerving to know just how many of those times happen while I'm in the shower (I love story planning in the shower!) I've written two short pieces from just an initial sequence of words, and I've been terribly happy with both of them.
The epilogue did indeed trap her -- and I have found myself wondering whether that was a requirement of her contract, or it was just stubbornness on her part.
I've read through some of the other reviews in Summoning, and the comments all seem very insightful. I especially appreciate your story (and your writing in general) because it awakens all my lit crit training. :) ...Particularly the half-semester I spent studying eco-feminist criticism, because it adds that extra layer to all the nature imagery and themes you have playing out. I'm such a dork.
And YES, the shower is the exact time where all those words, scenes, everything occur to me, too. Usually, that's when I write my favorite plays for my theatre company. It's funny that the time when you are perhaps least able to write something down is when the ideas occur.
My guess about the epilogue is the latter: stubbornness. I can see how she had worked years and years and years to get to the ending she had always dreamed and had already written. I imagine it was like a big sigh of relief to have finally caught up with herself. But... that's the catch. By the time she got there, she and the story had grown. Really, the first book in the series has a great plot but the book isn't not nearly as complex as the others - which makes technical sense, because the books mature along with Harry and probably the children readers - and the epilogue reminds me more of the style of the first book (and possibly even younger than that).
I've taken a couple of courses in matristic societies and the patriarchies which have sublimated them. I do think the pendulum will swing back in their direction after a time, and I also think that what I've learned has been quite influential in several of my stories. They're practice for my original trilogy (in the early planning stages.)
I love, love, love the shower for brainstorming. It's private, it's soothing and I think it's secure so that more of our subconscious brain is freed up to wander at will.
I quite agree with you about Rowling's epilogue. She grew as a writer, and her characters developed, but the epilogue matched her earliest efforts which was jarring when juxtaposed with her seventh book.
When I started writing, I couldn't imagine having notebooks of spare ideas or phrases or scenes ... but after five years, I have lots of them.
I practically gasped when I read your phrase 'I had the WORDS.' I can't tell you the numbers of times I've gotten the words just right in my head. It's a little unnerving to know just how many of those times happen while I'm in the shower (I love story planning in the shower!) I've written two short pieces from just an initial sequence of words, and I've been terribly happy with both of them.
The epilogue did indeed trap her -- and I have found myself wondering whether that was a requirement of her contract, or it was just stubbornness on her part.
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And YES, the shower is the exact time where all those words, scenes, everything occur to me, too. Usually, that's when I write my favorite plays for my theatre company. It's funny that the time when you are perhaps least able to write something down is when the ideas occur.
My guess about the epilogue is the latter: stubbornness. I can see how she had worked years and years and years to get to the ending she had always dreamed and had already written. I imagine it was like a big sigh of relief to have finally caught up with herself. But... that's the catch. By the time she got there, she and the story had grown. Really, the first book in the series has a great plot but the book isn't not nearly as complex as the others - which makes technical sense, because the books mature along with Harry and probably the children readers - and the epilogue reminds me more of the style of the first book (and possibly even younger than that).
Reply
I love, love, love the shower for brainstorming. It's private, it's soothing and I think it's secure so that more of our subconscious brain is freed up to wander at will.
I quite agree with you about Rowling's epilogue. She grew as a writer, and her characters developed, but the epilogue matched her earliest efforts which was jarring when juxtaposed with her seventh book.
Reply
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