It was probably a mistake to read so many things from UK authors while I was working on this novel.
Well, it isn't like I read most of what was on my want list. I just turned down a diary by a woman who worked at a lathe building parts for airplanes. During the war, that is. And there's another one which is mostly about the East End but still (from the sample chapters at least) all sorts of amazing things about being urban working poor during the war.
(And no, I didn't finish either of my archaeology books, either. Although I did read cover to cover a book about CRM planning. It wasn't actually much of a help but it was cheap.)
UK writers love being obscure. I was just reading a comment on Cockney Rhyming Slang that explained how the greatest art was coming up with one the listener had to strain to get. There's no street cred in using the slang everybody knows already.
And, well, using Ben Aaronovitch's books as an example isn't completely fair. He is writing for a post-Google audience. I think he completely expects you to notice when he is making a pop culture reference and, if you don't know it, type it into a search engine then and there. (Especially for ebooks as you can do that within Kindle Reader).
Example; when he's mentioned that some of the "Falcon-Aware" (as in, they know that magic exists) street cops have started joking about putting garlic buds in their lapels, "Seawoll suggested celery but I was the only one who got it."
So he's told you right off that celery in the lapel is a pop-culture reference and it is an obscure one, too. Oh and Ben used to write for Doctor Who.
***
I think I mentioned somewhere else that one of the things going on in these books is learning language and having fun with language. So Penny is picking up various sorts of UK usage and slang. But whereas the first book was largely blow-by-blow, covering every waking instant, this one crosses several weeks and there is quite a lot of "three days later..." in it.
So there's an entire scene where someone explains what "pants" means in British English. But within a scene or two either way Penny is referring to a cell phone as a "mobile" in the narration.
I'm really everywhere with the narration, anyhow. She's mostly using the American terminology and I've gone out of my way to assert it in a couple of places -- she describes Graham's place as a row house with entrances on the first floor, for instance. But various bits of correct (aka UK usage) language sneak in over time and most of them aren't explained to the reader except in context.
***
I have a scrap of graph paper where I jotted down the numbers from a couple of podcasters who believe in more structured plotting. It isn't quite Save the Cat level, but it is very much, "The first plot point must occur at 22% of the length of the book..."
Well, a quick stroll through the page counts and I'm coming within a few percent so far. And that's without having nailed down things with a heavily structured outline. Just instinct for how long to run a chapter and when something needed to happen. That's good to find.
***
Took a day and a half off work. Was so tired I ordered dinner so I'd have to stay awake (and hopefully get some writing done) while I waiter while I waited for it to arrive. Well, delivery was quick. The food arrived in under an hour and I was in bed in another. Slept twelve hours, and still was dragging today.
But I also got some four hundred words done that night, and another four hundred in the morning. Perhaps I've finally hit the place where it will start to go quickly.
Of course I'm plowing through another crazy conversation right now. The outline is, "Things become increasingly uncomfortable between Graham and Penny." (There's a blow-up scheduled in another couple of chapters). So subtext happening during a conversation. And what's the conversation? Why, about how the war changed society. Yeah, there's a few things there I have to look up as I go.
***
Stayed late today to have some peace and quite to practice brass. The trombone is now...functional. I can more-or-less get through a tune on it. I'd like to work the higher, sweeter register more but, really, I picked it up for the low end and all in all I like the trumpet better. The trombone lip is just too big and blubbery and the slide isn't as satisfying as tapping those trumpet valves.
So I pulled out the trumpet and my lip is still mostly there. Blew the cleanest, nicest-sounding (aka bright, sweet, brassy tone) "Slag Morning" (aka Pazu's trumpet tune from Laputa). But I've just barely got the C above the staff. I have lost a little lip in the reduced practice hours.
Oh and yes "Masterpiece Theatre" is next in my practice rotation and the damn thing starts on the second C. With a trill that's either on the top of the staff or just above it.
Plus I built a helmet. But that's another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment