Sunday, August 15, 2010

These self-flogging scars are starting to heal a little

After a year or three of painful, halting forward progress - frequently interrupted by boring life dramas and sudden losses of faith and direction that resulted in tens of thousands of words being assigned to the "Scraps" folder, the name of which barely conceals the true nature of its contents by putting an "S" at either end - Unloveable Novel #2 has finally passed the 80,000-word mark and is still purring along happily. The end is in sight at last. (After which comes the painful, but still much more enjoyable, period of rewriting and editing.)

Not all that impressive a feat, I know, but after a couple of annos horribilis, I will happily take what I can get.

As the King of Swamp Castle knows, sometimes you just gotta keep building until one stands up.

(And even better: Unloveable Novel #3 is already starting to percolate and accumulate random jottings. Hurrah.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"After which comes the painful, but still much more enjoyable, period of rewriting and editing."

And after that comes the most painful time, the one where an editor has to force himself to read your drivel between dropping nuggets while on the jam-pot--Oh no! Not another exclamation mark!
Pinch.Bloob. Another Bang! and another!! Blooob. Oh God--help me. Another 500 pages to read, double spaced! Bang! Bloop!!!

P.S A bang is an exclamation mark, which I know you don't know.

Now hang your head in shame because you laughed and your being laughed at.

nathan said...

Oh boy, my own shut-in troll...

    A very subtle and funny writer - one I've become obsessed with over the past year - in a decidedly Muriel Spark mood. Imagine The Pr...