greygirlbeast: (Default)
CaitlĂ­n R. Kiernan ([personal profile] greygirlbeast) wrote2010-12-12 12:32 pm

"A simple plan: We'd be different from all the rest."

Flippancy is the poor man's wit.

Or, to quote Dorothy Parker, "Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words." (My thanks to [livejournal.com profile] chris_walsh for reminding me of the latter).

We're not getting snow, though I wish we were. We're getting rain and lots of wind (gusts 40 to 50 mph).

---

Friday was spent reading back over everything that's been written thus far on The Drowning Girl. We spent hours going over the pages, and I made hundreds of red marks, catching grammatical errors, misspellings, continuity errors, clumsily repeated words, and so forth. I looked up and it was dark, and I had the odd sensation I'd not done enough work that day. Which is idiotic. After writing so much over five days, then spending hours proofreading, a writer should not feel like a bum for not doing more. Anyway, yes, polishing.

Yesterday, I sat down to make all the edits I marked on Friday, but after about forty pages, I lost all patience. Spooky finished for me, mostly, the things she could do on her own. A lot of my editing marks are hard to read, or vague, or indecisive, so she couldn't attend to them all. I sat in the front parlor reading: Hellboy: The Crooked Man & Others and Hellboy: The Wild Hunt.

Tomorrow, I'll begin Chapter Three. Supposedly, today is a day off.

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The words are a highway, leading from here to there, and it's almost a bearable thing, so long as I don't remind myself that there is Death.

[identity profile] xjenavivex.livejournal.com 2010-12-12 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I am still reading The Ammonite Violin and Others. In a way, your work has kept me company for many long days this month. I am grateful.

I know you push yourself very hard. Still, I believe you put in quite an effort and should not feel like a bum or that you haven't done enough.

[identity profile] kathryn-aka-kat.livejournal.com 2010-12-12 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Enjoy your day off! Despite the rain... or maybe with it: warm tea and crumpets inside are the better for a cold and gusty outside.

[identity profile] corucia.livejournal.com 2010-12-12 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Here in Saint Paul I've just spent a good part of last night and today shoveling snow - I've got more than enough to spare you some if you'd like...
sovay: (Lord Peter Wimsey)

[personal profile] sovay 2010-12-13 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
The words are a highway, leading from here to there, and it's almost a bearable thing, so long as I don't remind myself that there is Death.

If that is not a line from The Drowning Girl, perhaps it should be.