Here’s Dr Plutarch reminding me why I need to work harder. “You seem worried, sometimes unnecessarily, about saying the obvious in this book.” It’s true. Would I rather be accused of being obvious or obscure? The latter it seems. Actually it’s “sometimes unnecessarily” that spurs me on.
Dr P again. “I have to admit going to the dictionary (to check ‘obloquy’). Is there a simpler word?” There is, of course. And I should also verify “smarty-boots”.
And again. “X and Y have no children. Is this worth explaining or reflecting upon?” First reaction: I said I’d explained this. Second reaction; On re-reading what I’d written I saw the opening for a useful addition. Third reaction: As a result of writing this useful addition I saw a further opportunity for a 1500-word passage in a new penultimate chapter I have yet to write.
Finally. The need for that new penultimate chapter was suggested by… Dr P!
But don’t get the wrong impression - these are not complaints. I am lucky Dr P is willing to work so hard on my behalf. But that’s as nothing compared with the fact that his suggestions immediately ring a sonorous bell of recognition in me. He’s right. Why then isn’t Dr P writing the book himself? Perhaps his blog commenters should launch a campaign.
So, as I’ve said before the blog suffers. Ars Gratia Artis as the MGM lion still roars.
4 comments:
“At 300 words a pop, Works Well explores technology's artefacts,
usage, history, theory, science, language, byways and disasters.
Poetic machinery is a recent addition”
The process of writing and shaping a novel fits within the parameters or the scope of this blog, seems to me; just a different sort of technology is involved.
I, for one, am intently interested in your progress, the trials and tribulations you experience as a writer, the lessons you throw our way...and what your doctor has to say. Your blog has evolved over the months since I’ve started reading it to include the mechanics of poetry, so I should think the machinery of novel writing belongs here, as well.
(WV is comer, a definition of which is: One showing promise of attaining success. Seems to fit this blog and the novelist quite well.)
I take it WV is either (a) a misspelled abbreviation of Works Well, or (b) a VW (as in Campervan) going backwards. I appreciate the reassurance. The point I wanted to make is that previously I was capable of thinking up novel and (I hope) entertaining subjects for posts and presently any effort of that kind is going into the novel (eg, waking up in the early morning and making notes, being visited by an idea while scanning the supermarket shelves and repeating a mnemonic over and over until I'm back home in front of the keyboard). As a result the blog "sucks from the hind tit" (Did I pick that one up in the US?)
WV, in this case, is the acronym for Word Verification, in order to make a comment. I always first think of West Virginia.
Re: sucks from the back tit/hind teat may very well be an American slang expression. (Means close to the same as holding the shitty end of the stick, for the same reason.) I think it originated with the cowboys, but I don't know for certain.
Ebbing away, you say? Hmm. I wonder. Maybe I'm just easy to please. I see that you've posted, pour myself an ale, and read.
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