Back at work on Book V, which is being a sulky book right now and kicking in harness…I left it alone too long right after starting it, which it resented.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So it’s presenting me with pages of….to be brutally honest…not very interesting stuff.\u00a0 Not even background that I need,\u00a0 just a sort of Bookly protest at being ignored.\u00a0 “You weren’t here, and this happened while you weren’t here, so you have to write it all before I’ll let you hear the good stuff.”<\/p>\n
Having been informed by my agent today that I would need to have more swordfights and gore, and less of the everyday, if I wanted to rise higher on bestseller lists (some of his other clients have been known to sit on the #1 NYT spot and occupy several more for weeks at\u00a0 a time), I’m especially aware that the aftermath of a blizzard at the northern stronghold is just not that exciting.\u00a0 I know it’s about to be (the plot daemon has whispered in my ear) but Book V itself insists on plodding through every detail from dawk until Mmmph arrives with the important message.<\/p>\n
Grrrmph, is my response, and Book V’s,\u00a0 so we’re in the uneasy part of a new book.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s a little like a fencing match with rapiers in which\u00a0 Count Maurice slightly lifts a wrist and Viscount Ferdinand rotates his and shifts a foot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “I know this move–do you?”\u00a0\u00a0 “Yes–recognize this counter position?”\u00a0 “Yes of course, how about–oh, you know that too, do you?”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I advance a main character; Book turns a cold shoulder.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Book offers a snowstorm; I suggest an immediate arrival of vital news–which a snowstorm makes difficult.\u00a0 I change stance to another main character; Book reminds me that this time of year would be a weak entrance for that character and hands me an arrival that leads nowhere, to someone else.\u00a0\u00a0 I peek in on every major and minor character, in fact and Book contrives to make them look dull and lackluster.<\/p>\n
We’ve been playing this game all week.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pages have been written.\u00a0\u00a0 Pages have been re-read the next day with a sense of “Oh, dear.”\u00a0\u00a0 Part of it is not just my neglect of Book V, but the lack of input from Editor on Book IV.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If some things change in Book IV, then Book V will have to adapt to those changes–and I’m reluctant to dive in and then be yanked back by the restrictions placed on Book IV.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But I must,\u00a0 because the year is ticking away and Book V needs to be on the word count.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So far it’s padiddling along (technical term there)\u00a0 and needing to be kicked hard every morning.\u00a0 (Well, except my birthday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, I took a whole day off.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 During which I turned the heels of both socks, had a voice lesson, and then choir practice.<\/p>\n
And then there are the socks, the supposedly relaxing knitting to easy my hands.\u00a0\u00a0 At the moment, Book V and the sock which I started the gusset on today are both in a tangle and I”m for bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back at work on Book V, which is being a sulky book right now and kicking in harness…I left it alone too long right after starting it, which it resented.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So it’s presenting me with pages of….to be brutally honest…not very interesting stuff.\u00a0 Not even background that I need,\u00a0 just a sort of Bookly protest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-writing-life","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}