Last night I finished another rewrite. Now my manuscript is ready to face the bold red pen of the manuscript assessor!
I've sent a copy of my pride & joy to Sharyn (my supervisor) and she and Vivian (the associate supervisor) will read it first then, if they think it's ready, they'll send it off to a professional manuscript assessment service.
I'm really not sure what state it'll be in when it comes back to me. I'm expecting harsh criticism but that's all good - I need honest, professional advice to have the best chance of getting it published.
I know that I've done the best I can with it so far but I'm sure there'll be plenty more to do on it when it returns. Just how much it will need who knows? They could suggest anything from a light edit to a complete rewrite and total restructure or anywhere in between.
As long as they don't say it's a pile of crap that's beyond hope, it'll be all good.
So now I suppose I should get back into writing the exegisis... Hmm, I wonder how I'm gonna do that?
29 June 2007
25 June 2007
Airy fairy
Yesterday I finished off and submitted my AIRS library research assignment.
So it is done and I will never speak of it again.
So it is done and I will never speak of it again.
22 June 2007
Nearly finished another rewrite
I got heaps of writing done last weekend. Didn't touch my AIRS assignment, which is due on 30 June at the absolute latest, but I'll look at this weekend (seriously, I mean it, I think...)
So this weekend I'm tackling the tricky part of the rewrite, which is the final few chapters. With the changes I've made to how Tash is handling things there's quite a bit I need to change. It'll be a challenge but hopefully I'm up to it.
I've attacked the left-brain-itis by getting out a few art books (Klee, Picasso,Chagall, Miro) and I just look at the colour plates before I start writing to shift my brain into right-gear. I think it's working. I was really fired up to write last weekend and did about 10 hours all up over the two days. It was the first time in ages where I felt really compelled to write, that I just had to get it down.
I also had a few conversations with Tash. By tapping into her voice and just writing down what comes out without any editing, I can then go on to put more of her voice directly into the manuscript. It helps me tune into her more. I don't seem to have much trouble tuning into Mal - never have. Not quite sure why that is. I suppose it's because she's more open and curious. Mal doesn't have any dark secrets. She's been fairly lucky in life so far.
Not so poor Tash. But she's working it out. And once she gets through the horrors of facing up to what's in her past, she'll be a force to contend with.
So this weekend I'm tackling the tricky part of the rewrite, which is the final few chapters. With the changes I've made to how Tash is handling things there's quite a bit I need to change. It'll be a challenge but hopefully I'm up to it.
I've attacked the left-brain-itis by getting out a few art books (Klee, Picasso,Chagall, Miro) and I just look at the colour plates before I start writing to shift my brain into right-gear. I think it's working. I was really fired up to write last weekend and did about 10 hours all up over the two days. It was the first time in ages where I felt really compelled to write, that I just had to get it down.
I also had a few conversations with Tash. By tapping into her voice and just writing down what comes out without any editing, I can then go on to put more of her voice directly into the manuscript. It helps me tune into her more. I don't seem to have much trouble tuning into Mal - never have. Not quite sure why that is. I suppose it's because she's more open and curious. Mal doesn't have any dark secrets. She's been fairly lucky in life so far.
Not so poor Tash. But she's working it out. And once she gets through the horrors of facing up to what's in her past, she'll be a force to contend with.
16 June 2007
Left-brain-itis
Today I've finally started doing some more rewriting on the manuscript. It seems like ages since I've touched it, though it's really only a bit more than a week.
The problem I'm trying to overcome at the moment is a severe case of left-brain-itis. I've realised that all that research into brain development got my own brain stuck in scientific, logical mode. Not a good place for a creative writer to be.
Last Saturday, on our girl's weekend in Daylesford, Marita, Annalisa & I all had our tarot cards read. The tarot reader told me I should read books by Charles de Lint, who wrote about borderlands, the places that crossed over between this 'real' world and other worlds. I'd never heard of him (though Marita, being a librarian, had) so the next day we went off to the second-hand bookshop & I bought a copy of his book, Memories and Dreams. The title reminded me of Jung's autobiography, so I thought that was a good omen.
To be honest, de Lint isn't the best writer in craft terms. Some of his sentence construction is so amateurish I find it difficult to read. But craft, even in writing terms, is a left-brain activity, and I badly need to get back in touch with my right brain, so I'm perservering.
And he is a good storyteller. I like the way he weaves fantasy into reality; magic into the everday. And I know that, for my own story, I need to move away from a purely scientific explanation of what is happening to Tash to one that incorporates the unseen forces that science can't explain. I need to bring back the magic and mystery - that's how this story started out in the beginning.
Also last weekend we visited the convent gallery, which had some brilliant artworks of all kinds, including some original lithographs by Chagall (if I'd had a spare $10,000 on me I would have bought one then and there...). That made me realise how important art is to my writing, how I need to be looking at beautiful artworks to inspire me and get my creative juices going.
Funnily enough, Memories and Dreams is about an artist who can bring creatures across from another world through her paintings... sounds like synchronicity to me.
The problem I'm trying to overcome at the moment is a severe case of left-brain-itis. I've realised that all that research into brain development got my own brain stuck in scientific, logical mode. Not a good place for a creative writer to be.
Last Saturday, on our girl's weekend in Daylesford, Marita, Annalisa & I all had our tarot cards read. The tarot reader told me I should read books by Charles de Lint, who wrote about borderlands, the places that crossed over between this 'real' world and other worlds. I'd never heard of him (though Marita, being a librarian, had) so the next day we went off to the second-hand bookshop & I bought a copy of his book, Memories and Dreams. The title reminded me of Jung's autobiography, so I thought that was a good omen.
To be honest, de Lint isn't the best writer in craft terms. Some of his sentence construction is so amateurish I find it difficult to read. But craft, even in writing terms, is a left-brain activity, and I badly need to get back in touch with my right brain, so I'm perservering.
And he is a good storyteller. I like the way he weaves fantasy into reality; magic into the everday. And I know that, for my own story, I need to move away from a purely scientific explanation of what is happening to Tash to one that incorporates the unseen forces that science can't explain. I need to bring back the magic and mystery - that's how this story started out in the beginning.
Also last weekend we visited the convent gallery, which had some brilliant artworks of all kinds, including some original lithographs by Chagall (if I'd had a spare $10,000 on me I would have bought one then and there...). That made me realise how important art is to my writing, how I need to be looking at beautiful artworks to inspire me and get my creative juices going.
Funnily enough, Memories and Dreams is about an artist who can bring creatures across from another world through her paintings... sounds like synchronicity to me.
3 June 2007
Over another hurdle
The presentation is now over and done with and I'm really bloody happy about that.
It wasn't nervewracking to deliver because it was just in front of our cohort and the supervisors. But it was still a big relief to get it out of the way, especially because it had been taking up valuable writing time.
I still have that (seemingly pointless) research module to complete sometime this month, but I'm about half way through that so I figure I'll just do a bit each lunchtime & get it over and done with that way.
Yesterday was the first time I managed to get some time on my manuscript and I'm getting into it today as well (when I'm not procrastinating, that is). I'm about half way through this rewrite. I'm finding some sections flow really well and others need lots of work.
Sometimes it's only a paragraph that isn't working, but it can take ages to get it to where I want it to be. Like now, I should be (and I will as soon as I upload this) working on a small paragraph where Tash, Mal & Mal's mother Sue are on their way back from the doctor's surgery (Tash has just had treatment for a bad burn on her hand). I'm trying to get the atmosphere in the car just right. But there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of ways just to get this small piece of information across. And yet only one of them is perfect.
I suppose I'd better get back into it and see if I can figure out exactly which sentences are the right ones.
It wasn't nervewracking to deliver because it was just in front of our cohort and the supervisors. But it was still a big relief to get it out of the way, especially because it had been taking up valuable writing time.
I still have that (seemingly pointless) research module to complete sometime this month, but I'm about half way through that so I figure I'll just do a bit each lunchtime & get it over and done with that way.
Yesterday was the first time I managed to get some time on my manuscript and I'm getting into it today as well (when I'm not procrastinating, that is). I'm about half way through this rewrite. I'm finding some sections flow really well and others need lots of work.
Sometimes it's only a paragraph that isn't working, but it can take ages to get it to where I want it to be. Like now, I should be (and I will as soon as I upload this) working on a small paragraph where Tash, Mal & Mal's mother Sue are on their way back from the doctor's surgery (Tash has just had treatment for a bad burn on her hand). I'm trying to get the atmosphere in the car just right. But there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of ways just to get this small piece of information across. And yet only one of them is perfect.
I suppose I'd better get back into it and see if I can figure out exactly which sentences are the right ones.
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