Facebook flog - Jan 26 2014

[blogfloggery]

Link: Jan 26 2014, 15:00
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises

Comments

[ravens_shadow]

Part of me wonders if this ghost from her past is related to being a mother of a small child, something she really hasn't examined in her writing, and maybe there were stressors from that time which she never realized or dealt with previously (usually Anita is the conduit for LKH's personal demons, and the closest she got to raising a small child was the pregnancy scare and babysitting Matthew, which is very different from being the primary caregiver).

Then my cynicism kicks in, and I figure she's perhaps burned out from the previous day's writing. Not a bad thing. 25 pages, if my memory serves me correctly, is a lot for her to accomplish in a day; but sometimes, if you overdo it one day, your brain needs a rest the next day. Just...she doesn't need to wax on about demons. She mixes so many metaphors, it loses all meaning and impact, especially because it's so vague.

[cheeky_duckie]

She mixes so many metaphors, it loses all meaning and impact, especially because it's so vague.

This. I've had the, "Oh man, this story is basically just me going on about something that's bothering me," realization before. I think it's an okay thought to have, and even not the worst thing for a first draft. (Or so I tell myself. :D)

She makes so much of a production over every single feeling that is actually feels more manufactured than if she had narrowed it down to, "The new Merry Gentry novel, A Shiver of Light, is haunted for me. It's taken me a long time to realize that this book is hitting more of my own personal issues than any one I've ever written. I'm struggling today, but I've learned a lot about myself, and the past issues that still have more of a hold on me than I thought."

[ravens_shadow]

Yes! She makes it a production. Your version is so succinct and impactful, but it's not changing anything, just getting rid of the excess.

[ext_1626743]

25 pages * 250 words/page (which seems to be what LKH does) is over 6000 words. In one day. And she was up until 3 AM doing it, and I know from previous blogs that she tends to get up before dawn.

I don't think this book is hitting any more of LKH's issues than every book does; she's always used her books as therapy. The "demons" are from LKH's schedule being completely nuts. You can get away with this crap at 20 years old, but not at 50. She's abusing both her body and her mind.

[pryzmkess]

She must be exhausted from last night - it's no wonder her brain isn't working with her and is... "trying to tap dance all over [her heart]."

I wonder how close she is to being done.

[ext_1626743]

Not close enough, I bet. That's probably why she stayed up so late producing "pages". It's the way I used to write papers in my 20s, and even then I had more thorough outlines than she does. She seems to get a high from working this way, and getting too little sleep probably contributes to that.

[pryzmkess]

Haha, yes! I remember the "Now I must chain myself to my desk for the next X hours or I'll faaaaaail the whole class and DIE!" stress I used to put myself through in college. I'm a terrible procrastinator, so I get where she's coming from when she does it. I've just taken steps to stop doing that. I didn't like the way it made me feel about myself, so it had to be fixed. I still procrastinate (*glances guiltily at the litterbox*), but I manage it better now.

[rodentfanatic]

Considering how her books are focused around her personal issues as is without her realizing, it must be a doozy of a demon for her to notice.