Quote of the Day; life and writing update
May. 11th, 2008 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingModern English is the Wal-Mart of languages: convenient, huge, hard to avoid, superficially friendly, and devouring all rivals in its eagerness to expand.
---Mark Abley
---------------------------------------------
Let's see... I worked the closing shift today, 3:30pm to 9pm. It was pretty slow, especially after MS left. Then I called my mom, who's out in Iowa with Grandma Doris, and we talked for half an hour or so; that was nice.
In writing news, I've been picking at "An Ounce of Prevention," and having trouble making part 16 pull into any coherent shape -- I know what has to happen, but I'm not completely sure how to make the last couple of those things happen.
Also, my attention has been sidetracked by "Harvest," one of my original stories. It's an Ekanu story, and the first half is up on lj in rough draft form. The thing is, I got stuck near the climax of the story, and I realized that the problem was structural -- I'd started in the wrong place. See, "Harvest" is mostly a story about a failed romantic relationship; secondarily, it's about Ekanu still working out how to balance the expectations and assumptions of her two cultures; and thirdly, it's about Ekanu and Denifar taking temporary jobs at the Ileara chapterhouse of the University, on the island of Na'eraelu in the Gwynorae archipelago.
The problem is that I started the story with a scene about the tertiary plot, which meant that the resolution of the primary and secondary plots felt out of place -- I wasn't finishing the same story that I started. So I've gone back and am inserting a new opening scene, which is also nice because it helps me give a better sense of where this story occurs, both geographically and chronologically in Ekanu's life.
---Mark Abley
---------------------------------------------
Let's see... I worked the closing shift today, 3:30pm to 9pm. It was pretty slow, especially after MS left. Then I called my mom, who's out in Iowa with Grandma Doris, and we talked for half an hour or so; that was nice.
In writing news, I've been picking at "An Ounce of Prevention," and having trouble making part 16 pull into any coherent shape -- I know what has to happen, but I'm not completely sure how to make the last couple of those things happen.
Also, my attention has been sidetracked by "Harvest," one of my original stories. It's an Ekanu story, and the first half is up on lj in rough draft form. The thing is, I got stuck near the climax of the story, and I realized that the problem was structural -- I'd started in the wrong place. See, "Harvest" is mostly a story about a failed romantic relationship; secondarily, it's about Ekanu still working out how to balance the expectations and assumptions of her two cultures; and thirdly, it's about Ekanu and Denifar taking temporary jobs at the Ileara chapterhouse of the University, on the island of Na'eraelu in the Gwynorae archipelago.
The problem is that I started the story with a scene about the tertiary plot, which meant that the resolution of the primary and secondary plots felt out of place -- I wasn't finishing the same story that I started. So I've gone back and am inserting a new opening scene, which is also nice because it helps me give a better sense of where this story occurs, both geographically and chronologically in Ekanu's life.
