Category Archives: Diary

Novella Update

Total word count, Il Maestro e le Figlie di Coro: 25,111
Total words Monday: 2,380

This part is taking a lot longer to explore than I expected it to, and it’s growing unwieldy and out of proportion with the rest of the novella as a result. I may just stop writing it and jump to the next event. This one is going to have to be broken down, focused, and interspersed with the others in order to give it the correct rhythm, and I can’t properly do that until there are others with which to give it context.

Cautiously Optimistic

Well, today I don’t feel like passing out when I stand up. This is a definite improvement over yesterday.

For the purposes of appeasing posterity, a.k.a. my future need to check my records:

Total word count, Il Maestro e le Figlie di Coro: 22,731
Total words Monday: 1,275
Total words Tuesday: 2,340

Things have generally continued being less than stellar in the rest of my life. But at least there are new pages in the novella.

Musical PSA

Since so many other things got subsequently scheduled on the 18th (a.k.a. the night of my first concert this season) and no one can make it, I encourage everyone who wants to be at the upcoming Messiah concert to circle the date on their calendars this time. That date, once again, is December 16.

Maybe I’ll start including a footnote reminder of concert date, time, and location each time I journal about practicing or rehearsal, to keep it active in people’s minds. I don’t know how else to remind people of my concert dates. I announce them when I get them, which is usually six to eight weeks in advance, then again a week beforehand, and they’re always posted on the Currently Enjoying page. I don’t expect anyone not interested in the concerts to keep track of it or leave that evening free, but there have been a surprising amount of orchestra groupies this time who eagerly said they were going and then realised last week that they had double-booked themselves with various non-concert regulars in the meantime.

Edited to add: Okay, let me clarify because I can feel a couple of people getting defensive out there, which was not the point of this post.

a. I hate promoting myself. It feels like I’m pushing myself at other people and yelling “Look at me!” There has to be an easier way to do this.

b. Everyone has busy lives.

c. I don’t expect anyone to come to my concerts, ever. When someone does, I am dazed and grateful. When multiple individuals attend, I am downright jubilant and effusive in my thanks.

d. People tell me they want to attend, which I have to take at face value. I’m trying to find a method by which this can be made easier, and it’s just a fact that concert dates always slip people’s minds.

e. If no one can make it, I don’t take it personally. Not for the reasons you might think, anyway. You see, we hold concerts to make money in order to fund the orchestra. No audience, no ticket sales, no bank account to pay for rental of rehearsal space and operational costs, and so forth. Not to mention the very basic fact of no audience, what’s the point of holding concerts anyway, and if we’re not holding concerts what’s the point in preparing a programme? You see the problem.

So yes, people attending is a good thing, both for them and for the orchestra in general. And I like to have people attend; I like sharing what I do with others and offering them an evening of enjoyment. I specifically enjoy sharing what I do with people I know, because I can talk to them about it afterwards as they have a very different perception of the evening in general and the performance in particular. And my regulars all seem very upset that they overscheduled themselves, the sentiment of which I appreciate. It’s just unfortunate that everything seems to have fallen apart this time, and I like to think that it can be avoided in the future, for all the above reasons.

Novella Update

I’ve had a less than stellar weekend, so this has gone far towards ending it on a better note.

Total word count, Il Maestro e le Figlie di Coro: 19,116
Total words today: 3,060

I wrote a thousand this afternoon before heading out to my in-laws’ for dinner (an outing that Liam cut short), and evidently I just wrote another two thousand after he went to bed. I went back and filled in one of the [bridge] sections that needed to be written, but for which I had no plan last week. Time is good thing; it allows ideas to circulate in the subconscious, to emerge when ready. I do something very similar when I write non-fic: if I stall on one section, I move on and pick another section to write, marking where I left off with a vague note as to what ought to go there when I’m in the correct headspace and/or have a clearer idea of what to say, and how to say it.

It’s a good thing that I’m writing historical fiction, and can’t deviate from what I know happened. Otherwise my male protagonist and that young charming sympathetic female character who insinuated herself into the story would be falling in love, because it would be incredibly easy to do the way this story is going. It would be dreadfully cliched, and the temptation to succumb to it would be fierce. Fortunately the scandal is avoided by the simple fact that history demonstrates that nothing of the kind occurred, leaving the novella thankfully unmarked by indignity.

Release

I’m about to move the herbal and pregnancy books off the reference shelf within arm’s reach of my desk, where I keep the books I need at a moment’s notice during whatever project I’m currently writing. This is somewhat of a ritual, because it’s a sign of me finally completely releasing whatever’s been eating my brain for the past however many months.

The books that will be staying there are the ones at the far end, the ones on swans and mills and late medieval technology. And the ones I will add this afternoon are the ones on Vivaldi and music and Baroque-era life, for this new novella which is now threatening to turn into a full-length YA historical novel, one that may well have publication potential when I’m done and it’s been revised.

Once the initial furious output on this story calms down, I’m looking forward to being able to go back and forth between it and Swan Sister. And early in the new year I’d like to go back to rewriting the Pandora book, too, and finally writing the end now that I’ve figured it out.

Best-Laid Plans

I wasn’t going to write today; the boy was home all day, we had a playdate with Julia and Arthur (lots of fun, hurrah!), and I fully intended to go to bed with a book after dinner…

… but my brain had other ideas. So the novella now stands at 13,389 words, which means I wrote 2,215 more words than I intended to write tonight. Plus I have laid foundation for something interesting that will happen later on, and firmed up two other interesting things that will also happen later. There has been much development all around.

Now I will go make a warm cup of herbal tea, and go to bed with that book I meant to curl up with an hour and a half ago.