Iris, an orange, and I really need to have a word with Past Me
Approximately-weekly news, #54
The alliums are over, but in their place, an iris.
(I do have some things in my garden that aren’t purple, I promise.)
At my best friend Lou’s funeral, we gave out bulbs for a lot of different plants, and I brought some home and put them all in a pot together. This is the first to bloom.
In other garden news, the rockery-that-is-a-representation-of-the-new-book is looking happy and healthy, with plenty of growth and the gaps a bit less obvious. Hooray!
(And yes, that’s a dragon. Everything I write has a dragon in it somewhere. I’ll tell you why another time, though those of you who have been around since the cancer days know all about it already.)
The list of things I am going to do when I submit the new novel (30 June, 100% on track, oh yeah) is growing. It includes things you might think of as legit, when one project has been absorbing all available time. Things like ‘read for an entire day’ and ‘go to the cinema in the afternoon to see absolutely anything at all’ and ‘finish watching Season 3 of Yellowjackets*’.
Increasingly, the list also includes items such as ‘unpack bag from weekend away**’ and ‘sort out books on table***. It’s a good job I am going to a wedding this weekend. If I wasn’t I may well be adding ‘brush hair’ to the things I will do when I have sent the book off.
I know I am being (at least a bit) ridiculous. The book is in good shape (mostly - see below) and I don’t need to be writingwritingwriting from the moment I wake up until I fall into bed 18 hours later, a husk of myself. I’m not Hemingway (and we can all be glad about that.) I don’t subscribe to the ‘tortured genius’ model of writing, and I do have other things to do. Harris and I are going for walks, BMB and I are sharing meals and chats and life in general, I’m working on a line edit of an excellent book for an excellent client (you know who you are). I’m looking after the garden (though the garden may not think so). And I’m here, writing to you, which is always a lovely moment in my approximately-week.
But there is something about this stage of writing that is all-absorbing, hence the lists of things for later. I kind of like it. Though I am not looking forward to cleaning my desk, which will probably be growing fungus in its nethers by the time two more weeks have passed.
I’ll tell you what, though. If I ever get hold of Past Me, we are going to have Words. That woman is quite the piece of work. As I go through the pages of the previous draft of the novel, I’m finding things like (and these are direct quotes) ‘the impossibility of it all something something’ and ‘she talks about having read a novel about coppicing’****. Past Stephanie, ACTUALLY WHAT? (For the coppice-curious, it’s a way of growing wood, historically for industrial use.)
And then there’s this.
SAY IT BETTER, future Stephanie. Sigh.
The things I’ve shared so far are from previous drafts, and I do understand why I wrote them this way (though I don’t think I really thought there was a coppicing novel): it’s because, in early versions, I’m focussed on the words on the page, on the greater shape of the story, on the overall novel, and I know fixing and finessing are jobs for Future Me.
But this morning I came across this.
Do you know who wrote that, in blue pen?
Past me.
Past me from TWO DAYS AGO.
I can’t even.
Here’s a lovely thing that happens when I’m in this bit of my writing process/this bit of my head. Small things make me happy. The iris, the birds going in and out of their nest in the eaves. An orange, cut up, on a plate decorated with pears.
I’ve been reading poems about oranges, too. One (Brian Patten’s) is stolen, one (Wendy Cope’s) shared. You can find them here and here.
I’m going to be running my first ever online workshops in July, on plot, and character. I’m really excited - I’ve been thinking, for some time, about how to work with those who don’t have the time and/or money to commit to an in-person retreat.
If you think you might be interested in coming along, this page will tell you more, including how to sign up.
And if you’re interested in manuscript assessment, editing or mentoring, here’s the place to go.
In AOB, I have looked at fig necklaces, egged on by Emma, and I’m thinking they’re a no. They tend towards the scrotal.
Have a fab week, my friends, and remember, Future You isn’t necessarily going to have much of a clue either.
Sending you love and light,
Stephanie x
*Two episodes to go.
**At the end of May. I’ve taken the dirty washing out but that’s as far as I got.
*** There are 6 of them and they will all go in the same place. It would take 3 seconds.
****There does not seem to be a novel about coppicing. There may be a few that include references to it, now including mine.