Frustratedly numbered

[mrissa]

I have directly conflicting writing needs:
1. I need to get the revisions done on What We Did to Save the Kingdom, at least to the point where I can get other eyes on it. Really. Need.
2. I need to start another book. Really. Need.

I do not, however, have the bodily resources to do this concurrently. Or even particularly quickly consecutively.

My method of coping with having novels out on editors'/agents' desks has always been:
1. Work harder.
2. Send out stuff to which 1. has been applied.
3. A miracle happens.
4. Wiktory!
(Steps three and four are purely conjecture at this point.)

This is not particularly functional when 1. is not physically possible. Problem is, I can't really think of anything else that will work, either.

At least I'm pretty sure that, since I finished "Snapshots of Breath" this morning, I don't need to add, "3. I need to write more short stories," to the top list.

Bleh.

Comments

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

On occasions when typing has been out of the question for me, I've wondered what would happen if I tried to compose a short story orally. I've never yet been able to bring myself to try; my brain short circuits at the thought of not seeing words on the page. But maybe someday I'll experiment.

(This is actually not entirely true. There was one time I knew in advance that I would be telling a certain story in-character during a LARP, and so I prepped beforehand; I practiced telling it out loud until I had a good, and purely oral, narrative. But I'm a crazy folklorist, and that was a special case, never designed to be in print.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have tried, and I do short-circuit and loop back in circles. And, more to the point, have to keep checking the transcript.

Possibly if we were sure this was a permanent condition, I would put massive amounts of time and energy into training my brain to be able to do this. However, this is not that circumstance.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I've composed orally, but only stories which I intended to tell orally. They're entirely different from written-down stories - and when I do try to write them down, more than half of what makes them work evaporates. I can't begin to imagine dealing with written stories except by writing them.

I beg leave to announce that your situation sucks.

Congrats on finishing something. I feel like, in a state remotely like yours, I would have difficulty finishing signing my name, so a story with, may I say, a nifty title, seems like a serious success. (I know you have all along been having more trouble with revisions than with composition, which implies that this isn't the first new thing you've written in the midst of the vertigo, but I continue to find it a cause for admiration and also gladness, because writing is your thing, and so I'm glad when you can do any of it, even if it's not as much as desired.

Bleh, indeed. But, also congrats.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Right, I can tell stories to Robin, but they're not the same as the stories I write down. Not even the same as children's books I write down. This is why editors don't care if your cover letter says, "I told my child/godchild/grandchild/next door neighbor/randomly selected toddler this story and they loved it!": even if their love of the story was totally unaffected by their love for the adult telling it, that doesn't mean that it will necessarily make a good written piece. Even written for reading aloud.

You're right, it's not the first new thing I've written with the vertigo. I've done five short stories. I remind myself that that's more than some short story writers do in a year. This doesn't help very much; this is one of those times when having my eyes on my own paper might be a bad habit, but it's not one I can break.

The title is from a song Richard Shindell covers, Jeffrey Foucault's "Northbound 35," which I love. I heard Shindell do it at the concert we went to, and something in my brain clicked, and there was the story. Hard to even remember it that way, though, because timprov has learned it and plays it a lot, so it's too familiar for the lyrics (http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com/lyrics_content_Northbound35.html) to catch like that necessarily.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Do you want suggestions, or just sympathy? Because I have tons of sympathy, but I also have a suggestion if it would be welcome.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If it doesn't involve dictation software or other voice recording stuff, why don't you e-mail me.

In general I do not not NOT want suggestions. But you in specific are a friend who knows enough about my situation and my writing habits and how intransigent writerbrains can be and a dozen other details, so from you a suggestion will not make me homicidal.

As long as it isn't dictation software or other voice recording stuff, because I am seriously ready to beat the next person who suggests that to death with a sandal. I only didn't react that way to swan_tower because she phrased it in terms of her own experience instead of have-you-thought-of.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And thank you very much for asking rather than charging in. I appreciate that so much.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I found your journal through Will talking about Fourth Street. And since you are obviously cool and have good taste and like hockey and are cute, I have added you. I'm pretty sure I don't know you from Corvallis, more's the pity.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

And oh yeah. Going to your web page now, because I don't think the Marissa Lingens at Amazon are you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Aaaactually, I did write those kids' textbooks. Proud of 'em, too: I did them because we needed the money, but they were still hard, good work that needed doing. Ever try explaining pogroms or the Great Leap Forward to a 9-to-12-year-old audience? Oof.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

As I did discover when I went to your webpage!
I'm pleasantly impressed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm sure not; I was only in Corvallis a very short time, and I'm not in touch with anyone I knew then.

But anyway, hi, welcome!