I Could Be Writing Or I Could Be Writing About Writing

Writing about writing is less work. I'll go with that (at least until after lunch).

I'm not opposed to work. In fact I totally support it for other people (pretty much my same attitude about marriage). Actually, once I start working (on writing, cleaning closets, most anything), I kind of enjoy it. Or at least I don't loathe it. It's the starting that's the tough part. Especially before lunch, which I'll be preparing for myself in a mere 18 minutes (a wholesome and nutritious salad, thank you for asking).

I just created the following scale. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 not feeling like work at all and 10 involving the sacrifice of vast amounts of remaining brain cells, here's how the moon books stand:

Life As We Knew It: 1. Okay, maybe 2 because I did have to figure some stuff out.

The Dead And The Gone: 5, maybe 6. 5 and a halfish. I'd pretty much figured all the stuff out, but it did take some brain cells to make the chronology work. And I don't know Spanish. Okay, more in the 6-7 range.

This World We Live In: Definitely a 9. I'm the only person who gives myself credit for the amount of brain cells sacrificed for the sake of a novel. Working on the assumption that there would be some people who came to TW from d&g and some more from LAWKI, I had to keep various things in LAWKI/d&g unmentioned in TW in case any of those people then went back to read the unread book.

I feel so emphatic about all this, I think I'll bold the numbers. That'll show you. And having done so, I kind of like that "halfish" which looks like half fish if you don't know any better.

Ooh, what book have I left out? What Moon title remains unranked?

Yes, it's The Shade Of The Moon (which won't get italicized until it's finished). The Unnicknamed One is easily a 9.75. Not because it's that hard (it really isn't, and it's an awful lot of fun to play with), but because of that ridiculous September 1 deadline. I really really really want the submitted manuscript to be really really really acceptable, because there won't be very much time for substantial rewrites, and even though my editor/publisher has a basic idea (based on a 12 page outline, as well as the brilliant 2 sentence synopsis) of what the book is going to be about, that doesn't mean they're going to like the actual version unless the actual version is really really really good.

My guess is they want LAWKI 2, and that's not what they're going to get, so I'd better do a tiptop job with Shade 1 And Only, so they won't feel let down.

Stress and pressure. Or as I like to think of it, stressure. Although, actually I don't like to think of it at all.

My intent is to know the book so well before I write it that I won't get stuck anywhere in the middle/end, because it'll all be neatly ironed out before I get there. That's pretty much how I usually work anyway, but not with a ridiculous September 1 deadline.

For example, a couple of days ago I figured out what big big thing was going to provoke the big big change in the action. Fine. This is what I should be figuring out. Only that particular big big thing had consequences, or more to the point, presequences all its own that had to be dealt with. If I were going to write X, did that mean I had to change T and U, none of which I've written except in my mind where I happen to be very fond of them. How could I keep T and U so I can get to X (which now that I think of it, is more in the vicinity of V or W). And T and U only make sense if R and S do, and somewhere things have to be set in vicinity of E-H.

Writing's hard. And it's even harder to write about writing if you try to avoid spoilering.

But hey. Why complain when it's time to make lunch. After some nice healthy nutritious salad, I'm sure work will feel like 9.99 on the fun scale!