the post i have been avoiding ~

[lookingland]

so, july 7 came and went and nary a book did drop from my labors. i didn't even bother trying on saturday. i was in the middle of attempting to resuscitate the sprawling draft in the prior week, but it seems all for naught. i'm reorganizing in my brain for another assault, but i don't know when i will have the energy to mount the parapets.

any other time in my life i could have finished. i have to give in to the fact that i simply have too much going on right now.

Jack is finished as of yesterday. Eleison will be finished wednesday (i need to work on that e'en now). then i have four more papers to write for the summer and classes will be over the first week of august. that in addition to working full time and suffering this murderous heat seems cause to not be as focused as i would like.

i don't want to just put In Pursuit of Said Conspiracy down because i get rusty quick on stuff (and i guess that's officially the title now, what do you think?) that, and my notes are such henscratch that i worry i won't be able to make heads or tails of them a month from now. i went to a lot of trouble on sunday to train my brain to understand hancock's handwriting (no easy feat, lemme tell you), and if i don't transcribe his notes now i will have a dickens of a time trying to understand them again later.

i'm going to take some pages from various writers i admire to reconceive the book in the image i began with, which was light, loose, and literary (and not so waylaid with facts and information). there's a distinction between details and minutiae and sometimes i forget to pay attention to it. so:

from Ondaatje: poetry. point of view. every person counts. every word counts.

from Fermine: brevity. simplicity. a narrative haiku.

from Lightman: contemplation. a sense of wonder at the human imagination.

from Hansen: mystery. awe. the supernatural.

from Barrico: intimacy.

from Crane: universality. what's sacred in the mundane.

tall order, of course. but i think i can find it if i stop looking so hard. this story is easy, after all. sure, it's full of complexities, but the basic arc is really really easy: there's a murder, then a trial, then a hanging. and all of these things are pretty much known before hand, so the story is about how it's told more than anything else ~ at least that seems like what is most important to me.

and anyway, that is the state of the onion (not a dry eye in the house).

: o p

Comments

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

from Fermine: brevity. simplicity. a narrative haiku.

I love that....

Sorry to hear that that life stuff is getting in the way of your writing.

but i think i can find it if i stop looking so hard.

I know you can. :)

(PS: Never did hear how you liked Ondaatje's new one...)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i haven't read ondaatje's new book ~ and don't plan to for some time. i was so disappointed with his last one, i might never recover ~ hahahahaha.

so i am giving him some space in the hopes that my expectations may lessen,

if you haven't read maxence fermine, i can't recommend Snow enough.

: D

Lots of good influence ~

[(Anonymous)]

Could get kind of crowded--be sure to leave plenty of room for da boo-boo and her particular facility with language and her humor.

I think you're being very grownup (what's up with that? ha) about priorities and the reality of how much you can physically do.

Nothing but optimistic hopeful thoughts coming from here (me).

moo

Re: Lots of good influence ~

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

awww, thanks mooey ~ i'm glad you're still my friend even though i didn't like your tater famine recommendation.

i loves ya too!

: D

Re: Lots of good influence ~

[(Anonymous)]

I'm ignoring your entire review of The Law of Dreams--I gotta. ;-)

x,

m.

Re: Lots of good influence ~

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

good policy ~ hahahahahaha

: D

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

btw - I dig the title. It has a nice ring to it and a sense of attitude and both make me want to read it. :-D