Not Quite a New Year's Resolution
"Not Quite a New Year's Resolution"
At Facebook's group "How Many Pages Did You Write Today", Ramona de Felice Long asked participating authors to post their work resolution or creativity goals for the coming year.
I answered:
My ongoing project for the next 2 years is to assemble all of G&B currently written, and write the remaining chapters--coming up with a satisfactory resolution of all its conflicts & character arcs. This is a multiple volume project--either 3 or 4 volumes depending on how many pages it takes to resolve everything. Parallel to that, I need to find at least a couple of beta readers willing to read through this enormous project chapter by chapter and offer comments. I foresee buying lots of chocolate.
I've written about The Gryphon and the Basilisk here before but just as a reminder, the manuscript is gargantuan, as in well over 300,000 words. And it's not yet complete. That's why the project has nicknames like The Behemoth, and The Book That Intends to Eat Delaware. The events in the story take place after those in Seabird and Earthbow. I wrote most of the manuscript to date back in the early-mid 1980's, directly after finishing the first drafts of the other two books, then did virtually no work on it until November of last year, during NaNoWriMo.
I only hope that I can complete all of this "creativity goal" in two years. Frankly, I don't know yet. I really, really, need to come up with a suitable ending.
As I wrote once re G&B:
"... That's a lot of what (the characters have) been doing for the last three chapters I wrote of G&B Vol. 3--praying, angsting and debating. They're sitting on sofas and practicing fire-throwing and being Mr Mean-Jeans--in other words, just killing time--like actors without a script. You'd think they were in The Purple Rose of Cairo, if it weren't for the constant bickering. "That's got to be the stupidest plan I've ever heard!" "Yeah? What've you got?"
At which point, I feel invisible eyes heading my way. All waiting for -me- to come up with a solution, and then put it into someone's mouth! I wrote the first two and two-thirds volumes! They can't chip in a few lines of dialogue?"
So there you go with my resolution or creative project or the bane of my existence for the next two years.
"PROGRESS REPORT" Nov 29 2013: I've had and then lost two or three beta readers since I wrote this entry. Despite fits and starts at revision, finishing G&B is still in deadlock. I blame much of my lack of progress on emergency moving prep between Aug 2011 & Feb 2012, and subsequent fall-out of a couple of varieties but the main barrier is still writer's block.
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In other news, BZ and his dad stopped by my apartment yesterday and kindly removed my very old desktop computer from the premises. My old and original work station is now free! BZ's dad also made considerable progress on getting my new printer working. We were stalled within sight of our goal by the probability that the ink cartridges had gotten dried out. So that's the next project there.
I want to apologize here to them for the state of my apartment in general. It -is- appalling, no question! But it's gotten worse than it was, thanks to my broken ankle. (See previous entry for details)
However, I can't use my ankle as a blanket excuse. The -real- excuse is my inability to get derelict machines and various other heavy objects etc down three flights of steps and over to the dumpster, which began long before I had a broken ankle. For years, I barely managed to dispose of each week's garbage & litter resulting in a variety of things having piled up slowly but inexorably for years now.
I go back to the doctor again-again the Tuesday after this at which point I'll find out if the ends of the broken bones have shifted apart farther than they were during my previous examination. If so, I will have a real problem since the doctor will probably want to put in a plate and I have no idea how I could manage my life, the apartment or even the cats while recovering from that kind of an operation. I'm doing my very best to stay off my feet whenever I can, to keep the bones in place. (I'm wearing my "boot" 24/7.) I have no idea if it's enough. (Does trying to stay off one's feet count as a resolution?)
Hm... Trying to think if I've got other news. Oh! One GOOD thing at least! BZ gave me a copy of
"The C. S. Lewis Bible" for Christmas. Thanks so much, BZ! I am trying to read a chapter a day of it, beginning with John. (John is what my church's Bible study group is studying this winter.) So far--after 4 days--I'm on schedule. I told BZ that the actual Bible chapters & verses on the pages are the nourishing meals, and the related CS Lewis quotations inserted next to or between chapters are the desserts.
I would also like to get back into posting entries here more often, but I'm not going to pledge anything about that. Sometimes--most of the time--my life is so boring that I simply can't think of anything to write that won't result in massive winds caused by yawns. A blogger can't count on a broken ankle every month.
And that's about it!
At Facebook's group "How Many Pages Did You Write Today", Ramona de Felice Long asked participating authors to post their work resolution or creativity goals for the coming year.
I answered:
My ongoing project for the next 2 years is to assemble all of G&B currently written, and write the remaining chapters--coming up with a satisfactory resolution of all its conflicts & character arcs. This is a multiple volume project--either 3 or 4 volumes depending on how many pages it takes to resolve everything. Parallel to that, I need to find at least a couple of beta readers willing to read through this enormous project chapter by chapter and offer comments. I foresee buying lots of chocolate.
I've written about The Gryphon and the Basilisk here before but just as a reminder, the manuscript is gargantuan, as in well over 300,000 words. And it's not yet complete. That's why the project has nicknames like The Behemoth, and The Book That Intends to Eat Delaware. The events in the story take place after those in Seabird and Earthbow. I wrote most of the manuscript to date back in the early-mid 1980's, directly after finishing the first drafts of the other two books, then did virtually no work on it until November of last year, during NaNoWriMo.
I only hope that I can complete all of this "creativity goal" in two years. Frankly, I don't know yet. I really, really, need to come up with a suitable ending.
As I wrote once re G&B:
"... That's a lot of what (the characters have) been doing for the last three chapters I wrote of G&B Vol. 3--praying, angsting and debating. They're sitting on sofas and practicing fire-throwing and being Mr Mean-Jeans--in other words, just killing time--like actors without a script. You'd think they were in The Purple Rose of Cairo, if it weren't for the constant bickering. "That's got to be the stupidest plan I've ever heard!" "Yeah? What've you got?"
At which point, I feel invisible eyes heading my way. All waiting for -me- to come up with a solution, and then put it into someone's mouth! I wrote the first two and two-thirds volumes! They can't chip in a few lines of dialogue?"
So there you go with my resolution or creative project or the bane of my existence for the next two years.
"PROGRESS REPORT" Nov 29 2013: I've had and then lost two or three beta readers since I wrote this entry. Despite fits and starts at revision, finishing G&B is still in deadlock. I blame much of my lack of progress on emergency moving prep between Aug 2011 & Feb 2012, and subsequent fall-out of a couple of varieties but the main barrier is still writer's block.
---
In other news, BZ and his dad stopped by my apartment yesterday and kindly removed my very old desktop computer from the premises. My old and original work station is now free! BZ's dad also made considerable progress on getting my new printer working. We were stalled within sight of our goal by the probability that the ink cartridges had gotten dried out. So that's the next project there.
I want to apologize here to them for the state of my apartment in general. It -is- appalling, no question! But it's gotten worse than it was, thanks to my broken ankle. (See previous entry for details)
However, I can't use my ankle as a blanket excuse. The -real- excuse is my inability to get derelict machines and various other heavy objects etc down three flights of steps and over to the dumpster, which began long before I had a broken ankle. For years, I barely managed to dispose of each week's garbage & litter resulting in a variety of things having piled up slowly but inexorably for years now.
I go back to the doctor again-again the Tuesday after this at which point I'll find out if the ends of the broken bones have shifted apart farther than they were during my previous examination. If so, I will have a real problem since the doctor will probably want to put in a plate and I have no idea how I could manage my life, the apartment or even the cats while recovering from that kind of an operation. I'm doing my very best to stay off my feet whenever I can, to keep the bones in place. (I'm wearing my "boot" 24/7.) I have no idea if it's enough. (Does trying to stay off one's feet count as a resolution?)
Hm... Trying to think if I've got other news. Oh! One GOOD thing at least! BZ gave me a copy of
"The C. S. Lewis Bible" for Christmas. Thanks so much, BZ! I am trying to read a chapter a day of it, beginning with John. (John is what my church's Bible study group is studying this winter.) So far--after 4 days--I'm on schedule. I told BZ that the actual Bible chapters & verses on the pages are the nourishing meals, and the related CS Lewis quotations inserted next to or between chapters are the desserts.
I would also like to get back into posting entries here more often, but I'm not going to pledge anything about that. Sometimes--most of the time--my life is so boring that I simply can't think of anything to write that won't result in massive winds caused by yawns. A blogger can't count on a broken ankle every month.
And that's about it!