Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Writing a novel fries out your brain

My attention span is shot these days. Did you know that I can't even read? Or at least that reading frustrates the hell out of me. Aside from Tina Fey's book. That reads itself.
It's something that happened towards the end of my Arts degree, and it's something that finishing up a novel inspires. At least in me. I am very close to the end, which makes me alternately excited and irritated. I don't want it to end. No, I want it to end right now. Story endings are something I have always had problems with, not that I've ever gotten this far with a 'book'. But it's a problem I have with short stories at least, so I would very much like there to be a nice balance to the structure, I don't want it to be top-heavy. I want there to be pay-off at the end that seems inevitable when you read it, but isn't laboured or predictable. I also don't want it to seem rushed. You might say I want a lot. Many nice people are reading for me and have been giving me useful feedback. I love these people a lot. They enable me to fix and rewrite and re-imagine problematic parts of the 'book'.

This is a rambling way to say I am not reviewing any books here right now. Because I have no attention span to do much beyond edit my book, watch Boardwalk Empire and read 'Bossypants.' The end.

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