In-between bouts of copywriting, I\u0092ve been working on my novel.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I know, I\u0092ve been saying that for more than a year. That was research, and it was important; I couldn\u0092t have got here without that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This is different. This is working on a book, like I remember it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Last night I completely rebuilt my e-books, which I\u0092ve been wanting to do for a while now (especially now that I have an e-reader, and I wasn\u0092t happy with how the old versions looked; I knew I could create a better, more \u0093professional\u0094 product). In the process, scanning through all those chapters and scenes and seeing those old, beloved characters\u0092 names again, I was reminded of what \u0093writing a book\u0094 was like at its best–when it wasn\u0092t about pressure<\/em> or keeping up<\/em> or proving myself<\/em> or doing what I\u0092m supposed to be doing<\/em>, or any of that. It was about creating, discovering, having a conversation with my creative subconscious.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And now, this work has thrown me right back into the middle of that activity and that feeling–just as fresh as fun as it was in 1998, when I was writing my first book. Only now, and especially now that I\u0092ve got over whatever was in the way and am into the work, I feel confident that I am more capable than ever.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n I\u0092ve worked out a lot<\/em> of this story.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And just now, as an exercise to ease into the story, to give myself the freedom and permission to write just for myself, without consequence, I wrote a \u0093missing scene\u0094 from the story. And you know what? It was easy. I mean, it was work, sorting out the beats of the scene, then writing it, but it was work I can just do.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Craig just got home from his Spanish class and insisted on taking me outside to see the sun–a giant ball of orange gelato sliding out of sight behind the neighbours\u0092 slate roofs. Now he\u0092s off to the shop for a minute and I\u0092m finishing this. The sky out my window is still pinky-orange. Across the street, a gull sits nestled beside a chimney-pot. It\u0092s a warm, kind day that feels like the start of summer, even though a theatrical fog is rising from the harbour.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n All’\u0092s right with the world.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In-between bouts of copywriting, I\u0092ve been working on my novel. I know, I\u0092ve been saying that for more than a year. That was research, and it was important; I couldn\u0092t have got here without that. This is different. This is working on a book, like I remember it. Last night I completely rebuilt my e-books, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}