Finals, weekend and a novel change
Dec. 11th, 2009 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideI'm home from my last two finals! I got 100 on one, 102 on the other. I spoke to all my professors and they all told me I'd gotten an A. That means I have a 4.0! So happy about that.
Also, Jo-chan is coming over tomorrow, and Boychild's parents and Boychild are coming over tonight for pizza. Ahhh, fun. Also I'm going to bring my table up and do a treatment.
I'd like to add right not that it is tit-freezingly cold out here today. The poor birds were going crazy looking for water because I hadn't yet plugged in the de-icers. I plugged them in today after school though. Seriously, it's about 25 degrees. Dad would HATE this, he hated the cold so much. My Mom loves it. I like it too, just not at 6:45, which is when I got up this morning. I'm glad it's cold (it's nigh winter,) but tat doesn't mean I can be happyassing around out there all the time. My ass freezes off.
In other news, so I've been finding mad helpful links both by and about literary agents and what they like and hate. I did a lot of searching last night, and a lot of searching through my own novel recently and I am slowly getting the hint as to why the query letter sparks interest but the first chapter does not. As much as I keep trying to tighten it, it's still just not tight enough. I ramble way too much. Also, a big pet peeve for most is this “begins with a dream” thing, and even though mine's a recollection intended to illustrate that there is no “past” or “future,” that is just simply not clear. And it breaks the action in half.
Last night I lay in bed thinking not about today's finals, but about all the wonderful, exhilarating ways in which I can rework this opening chapter to really try to grab someone by the throat. I keep a notebook by my bed and it's covered in 1:30 AM barely legible scribbles: “In the broken springs and coils of the mind-clock... when all is one, when birth and death are interchangeable and past/pres/fut are mutable what does it matter which came first? There is no first b/c there is no Time... I am your God. Also have him ask for a newspaper.”
MAN, I get so
Anyway, so I should get to that presently, huh? Ever forward, hopeful novelist!
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Date: 2009-12-12 03:39 am (UTC)~Smoke~
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Date: 2009-12-12 03:51 pm (UTC)Thanks Princess, I miss ya!
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Date: 2009-12-15 03:19 am (UTC)It sounds like you're getting to a good place with your novel. I remember the first time I "workshopped" the paper that grew into what-will-be-my dissertation. The prof, who is the most wonderfully dry man I've ever known, said, "This is interesting. Cut the first 10 pages."
I felt like my heart had just fallen out of my butt - it was only 25 pages in its entirety. But I gave it a day, read through it fresh, and realized he was right. I spent the first 10 pages working up to what I wanted to say, then started saying it on page 11-or-so.
And can we get a "whoop-whoop" on your school performance? Go curve-setter; may not too many of your peers shoot evil looks at the back of your head. ;)
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Date: 2009-12-15 04:25 am (UTC)It sounds like you're getting to a good place with your novel.
Panic and despair, actually. I think that is pretty good though? :)
The prof, who is the most wonderfully dry man I've ever known, said, "This is interesting. Cut the first 10 pages."
I had a professor who was like that, too. He kind of brushed away the blood that you spilled onto the page and said, "It's fair, but a little too expected, my dear." Or some other soul-rending criticism. It guts you in a necessary way. I kind of loved him. ^_^
And thanks! I spent a week helping classmates review so they were pretty pleased. :)