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Apr. 16th, 2011 04:19 pmI get to breathe on Monday. Metaphorically, of course. From 11 am I shall be in shopping and cooking and altogether in Passover mode.
This makes me rather nervous. I think I'm a bit worried that if I stop for a few days, I won't be able to start up again. I've set everything up so that I'll get through all the work I have to do before the end of June in time, and I don't want to miss any.
It helps that this is work I love. It's a great deal of fun moving from thinking about actively pondering and reconstructing the Middle Ages to thinking about how other people reconstruct the Middle Ages to thinking about writing techniques and what narrative needs they meet. It helps that a bunch of it is actually writing a novel and trying to make the place and time come to life as much as trying to make the characters live.
Except that the pacing is wrong in the first 150 pages of the novel and I'm itching to find out why and fix it, and I can't, because the UK/France trip is an immovable so everything that needs doing for it must take precedence. Except that I have suddenly got more Conflux work because the hotel is finally ready to talk costs for the banquet. Except that there's a ton of housework to do, because of Passover (and I know, I should have done it already, but this week has been a tormented one - 6th week of the worst asthma I've had in two decades - whenever I do housework my breathing goes rapidly downhill, so I've done some but put off even more). Except that I've got crit comments on my committee novel and I have worked out their implications and can make it tick better and want to make it tick better and send it off. Except that the Beast looms and says "You know, writers are asking you about me - why aren't you doing anything about this?" And lots more. Lots of 'excepts.'
Some of them have to be dealt with on top of everything else, of course. If I can work cleverly enough, I might be able to pick some of the other 'excepts' up again in the next few weeks.
Today is all about working cleverly. I'm going through all my current dissertation and novel notes and sorting them and thinking them through and writing up as many as possible. This will only be about a third (maybe clearing 150 pieces of paper, maybe 200), because notes by themselves can't be written up - I need a context and an argument, or a context and a plot point (depending on what it's for), but I have that for a lot of scraps of paper. Once they're written up they can be filed.
I've already checked through them and wrote a big batch up last night, and have worked out that, when these are done, my novel will be ready for checking with my scientist friends (still missing most of one plotline, but this is not one the scientsits are involved in, so that's cool) and I'll be ready to clean up the next section of dissertation and novel for my supervisor, which I want to have done by early June at the latest.
In other words, if I do a long but clever day's work today, then I can focus on those 36 to-read books from tomorrow until ANZAC Day. I don't know how many 'excepts' this will allow me to cover. Maybe only the really forceful ones. It will, however, allow me to relax and take a couple of days off and still meet all my deadlines.
Speaking of which, tomorrow I'm going to post the last two forms from the impossibly form-filled fortnight. I'm also picking up two dozen books from the library. I was going to do it all today, but it's brisk outside and my breathing can't cope with cool air and carrying heavy things both at the same time. It's better than it has been, but I still have to take care. Tomorrow, early afternoon, then, I go for a walk and come back bearing books.
And if anyone wants me to fill in a form in the near future, they'd better have *excellent* reasons!
This makes me rather nervous. I think I'm a bit worried that if I stop for a few days, I won't be able to start up again. I've set everything up so that I'll get through all the work I have to do before the end of June in time, and I don't want to miss any.
It helps that this is work I love. It's a great deal of fun moving from thinking about actively pondering and reconstructing the Middle Ages to thinking about how other people reconstruct the Middle Ages to thinking about writing techniques and what narrative needs they meet. It helps that a bunch of it is actually writing a novel and trying to make the place and time come to life as much as trying to make the characters live.
Except that the pacing is wrong in the first 150 pages of the novel and I'm itching to find out why and fix it, and I can't, because the UK/France trip is an immovable so everything that needs doing for it must take precedence. Except that I have suddenly got more Conflux work because the hotel is finally ready to talk costs for the banquet. Except that there's a ton of housework to do, because of Passover (and I know, I should have done it already, but this week has been a tormented one - 6th week of the worst asthma I've had in two decades - whenever I do housework my breathing goes rapidly downhill, so I've done some but put off even more). Except that I've got crit comments on my committee novel and I have worked out their implications and can make it tick better and want to make it tick better and send it off. Except that the Beast looms and says "You know, writers are asking you about me - why aren't you doing anything about this?" And lots more. Lots of 'excepts.'
Some of them have to be dealt with on top of everything else, of course. If I can work cleverly enough, I might be able to pick some of the other 'excepts' up again in the next few weeks.
Today is all about working cleverly. I'm going through all my current dissertation and novel notes and sorting them and thinking them through and writing up as many as possible. This will only be about a third (maybe clearing 150 pieces of paper, maybe 200), because notes by themselves can't be written up - I need a context and an argument, or a context and a plot point (depending on what it's for), but I have that for a lot of scraps of paper. Once they're written up they can be filed.
I've already checked through them and wrote a big batch up last night, and have worked out that, when these are done, my novel will be ready for checking with my scientist friends (still missing most of one plotline, but this is not one the scientsits are involved in, so that's cool) and I'll be ready to clean up the next section of dissertation and novel for my supervisor, which I want to have done by early June at the latest.
In other words, if I do a long but clever day's work today, then I can focus on those 36 to-read books from tomorrow until ANZAC Day. I don't know how many 'excepts' this will allow me to cover. Maybe only the really forceful ones. It will, however, allow me to relax and take a couple of days off and still meet all my deadlines.
Speaking of which, tomorrow I'm going to post the last two forms from the impossibly form-filled fortnight. I'm also picking up two dozen books from the library. I was going to do it all today, but it's brisk outside and my breathing can't cope with cool air and carrying heavy things both at the same time. It's better than it has been, but I still have to take care. Tomorrow, early afternoon, then, I go for a walk and come back bearing books.
And if anyone wants me to fill in a form in the near future, they'd better have *excellent* reasons!