Still writing
Church v. good today. Subsequent outing with people from church both mildly fun and mildly awkward. Did manage to find out, finally, what exactly a deacon is. We're losing ours to the diocese of Milwaukee, which is sad, as she's a lovely woman whom I would have liked to get to know.
I spent two hours on the phone with B. yesterday, as we haven't spoken in ages. Most of it was yammering about everything going on in our lives, from her Ph.D. applications to my job, but some of it was talking about my visit this summer. Because I bought my tickets. I'm going to be there two whole weeks, hanging around Oxford for the first but presumably running off to see people in London and various other places (pokes tiddlypom), and then the second week I plan to spend with B., doing something wonderful and relaxing. We're thinking Wales or Cornwall. I'd also like to actually see Bath and/or Cambridge, which I was going to do last July before I had to cancel that trip, but that'll depend on what's going on in the first week. I can't wait.
We also talked about YA lit and my novel for quite a while. B. has her degree in Gaelic Studies from Edinburgh, and she mentioned the need for good Gaelic fiction--particularly graded books for young people who are learning it as a second language. And what with her being fluent and all, and what with my interest in YA, and what with our having collaborated on all kinds of projects since we were both twelve, it seems like something to consider. We were mostly joking about it, but in a thoughtful sort of way. (Translating that play we wrote sophomore year is probably a terrible idea.)
As I said, we talked about the novel. It's really taking on form now, which at about 65,000 words I suppose it ought to be. I reviewed my tentative list of missing scenes today and discovered that I am nowhere near as close to being done as I thought I was. It's hard to tell, as I'm not writing in chronological order, but there's so much left to do! Even once I've trimmed it down in edits, I don't see how I can get it much under 100,000 words. 90,000 might be doable. Which is reasonable for an adult fantasy novel but really too long for Young Adult. I'm finally having to admit, I think, that this book won't be marketable as YA. There's also the issue of my protagonist's age, which is never stated outright, but there's enough textual evidence for a clever reader to work out that it starts out when she's 13-ish and ends with her in her early twenties. And then there's the fact that it's now apparently about Victorian social reform and Middle English literature (which...was not the original plan, but who am I to argue?), and those topics aren't exactly hopping in the teen market.
Other issues I'm having: tying the themes together. Gah. I need the social reform β plot, and I like it, but it doesn't really take off until the last third of the book, and I don't want it to come out of left field. Not to mention the potential for classfail, which is even trickier given the gap between class issues in the US and UK.
The romance--I don't want to call it that, as I think it conveys the wrong impression--is also problematic, for so very many reasons. The primary relationship, though, is the one between the protagonist and her sister. Her sister opens up a whole different can of worms. I think I know what I'm doing with her, but it could end up going horribly wrong.
So. Still having loads of fun, though some days are much better than others.
I spent two hours on the phone with B. yesterday, as we haven't spoken in ages. Most of it was yammering about everything going on in our lives, from her Ph.D. applications to my job, but some of it was talking about my visit this summer. Because I bought my tickets. I'm going to be there two whole weeks, hanging around Oxford for the first but presumably running off to see people in London and various other places (pokes tiddlypom), and then the second week I plan to spend with B., doing something wonderful and relaxing. We're thinking Wales or Cornwall. I'd also like to actually see Bath and/or Cambridge, which I was going to do last July before I had to cancel that trip, but that'll depend on what's going on in the first week. I can't wait.
We also talked about YA lit and my novel for quite a while. B. has her degree in Gaelic Studies from Edinburgh, and she mentioned the need for good Gaelic fiction--particularly graded books for young people who are learning it as a second language. And what with her being fluent and all, and what with my interest in YA, and what with our having collaborated on all kinds of projects since we were both twelve, it seems like something to consider. We were mostly joking about it, but in a thoughtful sort of way. (Translating that play we wrote sophomore year is probably a terrible idea.)
As I said, we talked about the novel. It's really taking on form now, which at about 65,000 words I suppose it ought to be. I reviewed my tentative list of missing scenes today and discovered that I am nowhere near as close to being done as I thought I was. It's hard to tell, as I'm not writing in chronological order, but there's so much left to do! Even once I've trimmed it down in edits, I don't see how I can get it much under 100,000 words. 90,000 might be doable. Which is reasonable for an adult fantasy novel but really too long for Young Adult. I'm finally having to admit, I think, that this book won't be marketable as YA. There's also the issue of my protagonist's age, which is never stated outright, but there's enough textual evidence for a clever reader to work out that it starts out when she's 13-ish and ends with her in her early twenties. And then there's the fact that it's now apparently about Victorian social reform and Middle English literature (which...was not the original plan, but who am I to argue?), and those topics aren't exactly hopping in the teen market.
Other issues I'm having: tying the themes together. Gah. I need the social reform β plot, and I like it, but it doesn't really take off until the last third of the book, and I don't want it to come out of left field. Not to mention the potential for classfail, which is even trickier given the gap between class issues in the US and UK.
The romance--I don't want to call it that, as I think it conveys the wrong impression--is also problematic, for so very many reasons. The primary relationship, though, is the one between the protagonist and her sister. Her sister opens up a whole different can of worms. I think I know what I'm doing with her, but it could end up going horribly wrong.
So. Still having loads of fun, though some days are much better than others.