Thursday, January 26, 2012

My Magnificent Octopus


And I'm not even talking about Cthulhu (for once). No, over the last couple of weeks I decided to finish the third novel I'd been planning to finish during NaNoWriMo last year. At the time, it just didn't work; for whatever reason my brain couldn't cope with the way the story was going and I couldn't make sense of anything. So, I quit, and continued on with other stories. But I was reading the latest Stephen King a couple weeks back and the time-travel element finally kickstarted my own brain, and here we are.

I now have a couple first draft of The Juniper Bones. And no real idea what to do with it. If there's anything in this world that tells me I will never be a publishable author, it's that I have five first drafts of five different novels lying around my harddrive and I have no idea how to pitch any of them. For What We Drown is probably the easiest, being an urban fantasy romance, but it's overlong and the second part needs to be completely rewritten. Hibernaculum reads like a Russian novel (HELLO TOLSTOY) but it's supposed to be fantasy. But then it's romance. But then there's too much romance for the fantasists and too much fantasy for the romantics AND IT READS LIKE A FUCKING RUSSIAN EPIC. Winter is coming, in-fucking-deed. The Neverboy is YA, but it's about fifty thousand words too long to be published in that genre and being that it already forms the first part of a trilogy can't be hacked in half. Greywater is again a romantic fantasy, and suffers from many of the same issues as Hibernaculum, without being dogged by the shadow of the Russians.

The Juniper Bones is a completely different wee beastie. ...or huge beastie, let's get it right. It exists in three parts and weighs in at around 320k before editing. I also refer to it as My Magnificent Octopus, because magnum opus is far too grand a title for this particular pile of rubbish. But it's my rubbish. Because the main character, Eliot, is someone who cannot see his place in the world and therefore sees no point in living in said world any longer, but lacks the motivation to even try to leave it. He's waiting for someone to make the decision for him, because he knows in his heart he doesn't know how to make that decision for himself. And he's afraid of making the wrong decision. Again. Because he's always making he wrong decision.

Eliot is an expy of my own worst fears.

Because of that TJB is deeply personal. It's also completely insane. There's no way any publisher would touch it. So it's just...sitting there, now. Rather like the little doll of Morgan in the picture above, who stares at me with Baleful Button Eyes and reminds me that I'm just a fool for thinking any of this could ever work. So...yeah. My first entry of the year has straggled in rather late, and it's rather gloomy. I can't help but think I ought to give up on writing. But then writing's about the only thing that gives me any purpose in this world anymore.

I suppose in the meantime to cheer myself up I'll pretend that my Morgan doll has a switch like this. Because honestly, if she doesn't? I'm in real trouble now.

10 comments:

  1. Congrats, Baldrick!! And don't give up!!!

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    1. About the only really good thing about my octopus, unfortunately, is that it doesn't star a sausage. (Not that he really lives happily ever after, either, but that's a whole different kettle of aadvarks.)

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  2. Congrats Claire! Hope you'll drop by the Compuserve forum soon to share the good news!

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    1. I probably should come around more than I do, but considering the state of the octopus it's not really something to shout about, ha ha ha. It's just amazing to me because I think this all started in 2005. Ugh. SO MUCH TIME, ALL WASTED.

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  3. They're speculative fiction, Claire, pure and simple. Even (especially) the octopus.

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    1. You forgot the "unpublishable," ha ha ha. My poor harddrives, forever with the rotting books. Nevermind. I always say I'll try again...

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  4. I can't believe you've got so many projects on the go. So prolific!
    (Maybe you should do a sequel to Edmund: A Butler's Tale [g])

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  5. What, and throw in some sizzling gypsies? ...ah, shite, that's only encouraging a character of mine by the name of Nan. She's totally bouncing around in my head shrieking "I CAN BE A SIZZLING GYPSY! I CAN, I CAN!"

    ...

    But yeah, I never write one thing at a time, although it's not as hard as it might look because the stories cross-over in various places and are set across the same worlds, meaning even if one story in effect has little to do with another it's still teaching me history and culture and whatnot. ^__^ Although right now I should be editing. (Although now Nan is *begging* to be allowed to be a Sizzling Gypsy. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.)

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  6. I'd love to see some sizzling gypsies! Yea, I ought to be writing, filling in the 25 missing scenes...

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    1. Yeah, Nan's pretty much settled down with folded arms and a pout in the back of my head and is insisting on Sizzling Gypsification, so I know what I'm doing this afternoon. XD I mean, I was supposed to be writing something with her anyway, and it does fit with the story, so...GYPSIES.

      And ah yes, the dreaded missing scenes. ;_; I tend to love writing the juicy stuff, and then I get stuck later with all the bridging scenes that just aren't as fun to write...!

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