Today I finally got back to it. Maybe I'll take some days off next week. We're supposed to work this weekend anyhow. We want to redo the test chamber while nobody is using it.
Made a travel mug of strong coffee with my new electric kettle. Had an apple cinnamon scone. Put on my Athena Fox mix tape. And finally got moving again.
Oh, and had a weird insight. I'm listening to one of Carlos Elene's excellent game covers as I start this. He's been working with more and more performers lately and that's all to the good, because while he plays quite competently at piano, bass, and of course his lead sax, I heard something new this time.
And that's the performance choices -- those tiny nuances of accent and phrasing -- are the same in all his instruments. And that I feel is a weakness. I can hear the same thing in SquidPhysics and I assume in other one-man-band recordists. There's a dialog between players, but there is also more richness even if they record separately, because each makes slightly different kinds of choices.
***
But back to the book. This was the scene that felt most difficult. Sure, I'm wrapping up a lot of plot lines and that is either easier or harder depending on how much has to be pulled together and how much time there is to do it.
I just could not find what it was I wanted to say. Actually saying it is easier. Well, the current draft is a total cludge but I think I have something at last.
And did I mention the problems I was having with the diary conversation had propagated back? Yeah, I'm two scenes back, because the problems in the diary scene had grown out of choices I'd made back there.
I'm not looking forward to editing this mess. Well, not the work. I can do that. But rewrites (as opposed to spell check) is a place where you can revisit the roads not taken. And for anyone like me that is a horrible place to be because I'll be back at the crossroads agonizing over the choice again, while my little horse thinks it queer that I'm not pushing on to formatting for publication.
Oh, yeah. I got nothing against self pub. I've got even less against traditional publication. But I feel I have more to learn before it is even worth approaching one.
***
My music has suffered in this time. Being stuck at home unable to practice. Lacking the energy and the time to start any new pieces. I put new strings on my lute-back ukulele and I love it (synthetic gut-and-silk strings -- very medieval sounding).
My original 7C has corrosion pits inside and no longer slots clean. I'd really transitioned to the 5C anyhow, which is more secure slotting with mutes (which I have to use for many of my practice sessions) and is probably good training for the upper register.
But I picked up a screamer to try out. Don't know exactly where it sits but probably close to a 12-something. (That's Bach numbers -- nobody agrees on the numbers otherwise, not even the direction). It leapt right up past the over-the-staff C first time I tried it. But I'm liking more and more the full warm sound of the 5C.
And speaking of full sound. The trombone is still a pain. The second partial is horrible for me. I keep blatting on it. I keep thinking of getting an Alto (plus I could use a better machine -- this one has a noisy slide, no tuning slide, and is heavy). Or even a soprano, which slots exactly like the trumpet I'm familiar with and wouldn't be splitting my training so badly. I've been listening to Seb Skelly, who uses a soprano trombone and shifts it down an octave in the mix and it sounds decent. But all that sort of thing feels like it defeats the purpose.
So best wait until I'm making more music before I set out to add more instruments to my collection!
***
And the grind continues. I'm back up to the diary scene and it is slow going. The immediacy helps. I'm still not doing quotes within quotes, though, and I think I have to. I need to hear what Linnet and Wentworth actually said to each other, not just Linnet's reporting of it.
And there is of course still so much pushed onto the shoulders of this one scene. So slow going and even though it is only two PM I already need a break.
And I put on a playlist of Bardcore and somehow managed to shove my way through the diary scene. I have no idea how much I may end up editing this. The nested quotations are nearly as annoying as I thought they would be.
I offloaded some material on to the last two diary scenes. That's fine. I've realized how this works; the dig ended last chapter and with this scene, Linnet's story moves into larger prominence. I could even say that while the center part of the story is Penny spending her days in the Nine Elms Shelter and going on adventures with Graham evenings and weekends, it is now Linnet spending her nights in the shelter and Penny's adventures have become more serious.
Graham gets one more chapter. I'm still far from happy how I dealt with the complexities of their relationship, but it will have to do until I am ready for rewrites. And beta readers. I really need to score some beta readers. I'm making more these days, though. So I could actually go to the ones who charge for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment