“[L]ife is a good thing for a writer. It's where we get our raw material, for a start. We quite like to stop and watch it.”
Neil Gaiman

author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

actually writing blog

Task completion can be such an anticlimax.
Tue 2005-03-08 11:33:03 (in context)
  • 52,888 words (if poetry, lines) long
  • 11.50 hrs. revised

Finished the manuscript mark-up today. Reread all the separate notes I've taken along the way. Total completely illegible notes about which I have absolutely no idea: One. Total notes indicating problems I still haven't decided how to resolve: Fifteen or so. Total notes indicating problems for which I have solutions, but whose solutions I don't feel I can implement until after I figure out those fifteen or so mentioned last sentence: Pretty much all the rest of them.

Sometimes, stories just happen. I watch them unfold in my head and I write them down. Those kinds of stories are very little trouble to write. But sometimes I have to decide which way a story goes. I have to consider the consequences of each idea and figure out which idea results in the better story. Those kinds of stories are hard.

Guess which kind this is. Go on. Guess.

So the second half of today's session was taken up by me talking to myself on paper. "Rethink ending: what is proper effect of the 'exorcism' spell?" "Split up Sasha's first two spells into different scenes, or no?" "How exactly is Uncle Matt necessary to the resolution?" I don't think I'm going to get any of those answered without a long walk and a nap first. Luckily, I'm about a mile and a half's walk from home, and I'm very good at napping.

On that note: If you're in the Boulder area, do stop in at Cafe Bravo's for caffeinated beverages (some with little tapioca pearls at the bottom) and lunch things. Tell 'em the gal who hogged the leather couches all Tuesday morning long sent you.

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