This is about as fucking terrible as anything I could imagine.
This, on the other hand, is amazing.
Tragedy.
Farce.
The two stories elide with each other, but I don't feel like bloviating about them at the moment.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
All is calm, all is bright.
To start with, I haven't really read or thought about my story much since late July, except when I did a quick skim of Chapter 16 before it posted in mid-August.
When the writing goes at full steam, it's approximately as easy as turning on the TV or reading a moderately interesting book. It's more absorbing and a little more exhausting afterward, but I don't force myself. It's nothing like work. It just flows.
The last couple of months I've been preoccupied with work and social life and other interests. My mind's been elsewhere. This has happened before -- I once had a nine-month gap between chapters before the switch flipped -- but I think the audience interest now is significantly more intense than it was then.
So, that's where we stand. I've thought through a few scenes for Chapter 17, and for all I know, I'll sit down this weekend and hammer out 7,000 words. Or it may be a month or two. Or shorter, or longer. I never know! You're waiting on me; I'm waiting on my schedule and my muse. We'll get back on the same page sooner or later.
Meanwhile, I've been working my way through the raft of e-mails I've gotten since Chapter 16 posted. If you were nice enough to write, I'll reply to you eventually, but I always write individually, and some of the e-mails can be fairly detailed. Believe me, your notes are hugely appreciated. I used to think of the e-mails as a tip jar; now I think of them more like a salary. On occasion, they've influenced what I write or how I write it. (Don't submit any requests or demands, though. That's just obnoxious.) So, thanks for your thoughts and encouragements: the messages have been read more than once and appreciated, even if you haven't heard back from me yet.
Anyway, if you're bored while we're waiting this project to get back in gear, you could maybe skim Brideshead Revisited. That probably sounds apropos of nothing, but I came across it right around when I started "Joe College." It changed my story into something more ambitious than the original plan. The storyline of "Joe College" won't track Brideshead, but the tone and pace of it had a big impact on me.
Not that I think I'm Evelyn Waugh, or shit. Just consider it a good read. Or not! I just want to promote literacy, okay?
When the writing goes at full steam, it's approximately as easy as turning on the TV or reading a moderately interesting book. It's more absorbing and a little more exhausting afterward, but I don't force myself. It's nothing like work. It just flows.
The last couple of months I've been preoccupied with work and social life and other interests. My mind's been elsewhere. This has happened before -- I once had a nine-month gap between chapters before the switch flipped -- but I think the audience interest now is significantly more intense than it was then.
So, that's where we stand. I've thought through a few scenes for Chapter 17, and for all I know, I'll sit down this weekend and hammer out 7,000 words. Or it may be a month or two. Or shorter, or longer. I never know! You're waiting on me; I'm waiting on my schedule and my muse. We'll get back on the same page sooner or later.
Meanwhile, I've been working my way through the raft of e-mails I've gotten since Chapter 16 posted. If you were nice enough to write, I'll reply to you eventually, but I always write individually, and some of the e-mails can be fairly detailed. Believe me, your notes are hugely appreciated. I used to think of the e-mails as a tip jar; now I think of them more like a salary. On occasion, they've influenced what I write or how I write it. (Don't submit any requests or demands, though. That's just obnoxious.) So, thanks for your thoughts and encouragements: the messages have been read more than once and appreciated, even if you haven't heard back from me yet.
Anyway, if you're bored while we're waiting this project to get back in gear, you could maybe skim Brideshead Revisited. That probably sounds apropos of nothing, but I came across it right around when I started "Joe College." It changed my story into something more ambitious than the original plan. The storyline of "Joe College" won't track Brideshead, but the tone and pace of it had a big impact on me.
Not that I think I'm Evelyn Waugh, or shit. Just consider it a good read. Or not! I just want to promote literacy, okay?
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