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Nov. 29th, 2007
More on redrafting
Nov. 29th, 2007 07:16 pmUsually, I try to keep a one-track mind when I'm reworking something; I read it through and make notes, beginning to end, and then I bring it to the computer and go back to the beginning and work it through again.
Right now, though, I have to rework a thousand pages in a month, and I can only do so much of either of those processes in a day, before I crack up completely. So I'm doing both at once: yesterday evening I brought the day's reading to the machine and began to work through it.
And of course the latter is slower than the former, by a distance. Computer-wise, I may just reach the end of yesterday's reading by the end of today, but I won't get on to today's reading till tomorrow. And so on: what I have read will work itself further and further ahead of where I am with the rewriting.
Which means that I'm having to keep two separate tracks live in my head at once. Except of course that they're not actually separate, it's just that one car is significantly ahead of the other on the same route. It's okay at the moment, but by the time I hit the middle of the book, I just know I'm going to be muddling up the timelines, thinking "Hang on, hasn't he answered this question already? Oh - no. I read the answer yesterday, but I haven't got there yet..." and so on. I am not mad, but I could learn to be.
In other news, I am making a sort of bubble-and-squeak steak hash for dinner tonight, with Many Root Vegetables (potatoes, celeriac, turnip, carrot...) and I cannot find my masher. I have my ricer, but I want more texture than that allows. I can use a fork, or the back of a spoon, but I really wanted it better mashed than that; in short, I want my masher. And I cannot find it. How anyone can lose a big masher with a bright orange handle in a tiny corridor of a kitchen, I am not clear, but I have. [NB - anyone making comments that begin "Chaz, we've seen your kitchen," may leave the premises forthwith.]
Right now, though, I have to rework a thousand pages in a month, and I can only do so much of either of those processes in a day, before I crack up completely. So I'm doing both at once: yesterday evening I brought the day's reading to the machine and began to work through it.
And of course the latter is slower than the former, by a distance. Computer-wise, I may just reach the end of yesterday's reading by the end of today, but I won't get on to today's reading till tomorrow. And so on: what I have read will work itself further and further ahead of where I am with the rewriting.
Which means that I'm having to keep two separate tracks live in my head at once. Except of course that they're not actually separate, it's just that one car is significantly ahead of the other on the same route. It's okay at the moment, but by the time I hit the middle of the book, I just know I'm going to be muddling up the timelines, thinking "Hang on, hasn't he answered this question already? Oh - no. I read the answer yesterday, but I haven't got there yet..." and so on. I am not mad, but I could learn to be.
In other news, I am making a sort of bubble-and-squeak steak hash for dinner tonight, with Many Root Vegetables (potatoes, celeriac, turnip, carrot...) and I cannot find my masher. I have my ricer, but I want more texture than that allows. I can use a fork, or the back of a spoon, but I really wanted it better mashed than that; in short, I want my masher. And I cannot find it. How anyone can lose a big masher with a bright orange handle in a tiny corridor of a kitchen, I am not clear, but I have. [NB - anyone making comments that begin "Chaz, we've seen your kitchen," may leave the premises forthwith.]