{"id":15214,"date":"2021-03-26T20:38:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T00:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15214"},"modified":"2021-03-26T20:38:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T00:38:37","slug":"writing-pains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=15214","title":{"rendered":"Writing pains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Writing a book <\/strong>has sometimes been compared to giving birth. I can\u2019t speak to the comparison; it\u2019s for female writers to comment on such matters \u2013 not that I generally listen to female writers these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I was in metaphorical labor last night, working on the new Erling book, King of Rogaland<\/em>. As I\u2019ve already mentioned, I\u2019ve finished the first draft, but that\u2019s very far from finishing the job. I\u2019ve been particularly concerned about the second half, which seemed to cover the plot ground way too fast, and to be insufficiently linked to the first half. So I took one character, whom I\u2019d sent offstage at about the half-way point, and signed him on for another tour of duty. I also decided I needed some more fantasy action. All yesterday, when I wasn\u2019t working on proofreading The Year of the Warrior<\/a><\/em>, I was thinking about a scene to insert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking is the embarrassing part of writing. It doesn\u2019t look like you\u2019re doing any work. It also doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re doing any work. It only amplifies that voice in your head that keeps telling you you\u2019ve lost it\u2026 if you ever had it at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the C.S. Lewis story collection, The Dark Tower and Other Stories<\/a><\/em>, there\u2019s a story called \u201cTen Years After.\u201d It was, I believe, the last attempt Lewis ever made to start a novel (it\u2019s about Helen of Troy). But it\u2019s very short. By the time he wrote it, Lewis was near the end of his life. His health was failing (something glossed over in both filmed versions of \u201cShadowlands\u201d), and he\u2019d never really gotten over his wife\u2019s death. He just couldn\u2019t find the energy or creativity to write fiction anymore. He decided he was past it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was how I was feeling yesterday, when I set about plotting my new scene. I\u2019m several years older than Lewis was when he died, after all \u2013 although my health is better, and I\u2019ve insured myself against bereavement by successfully avoiding almost all meaningful relationships. But I was still wondering if I had it in me to write an imaginative scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I came up with something. I think it\u2019s good. It took a lot of thought, and it took time to gel, and it didn\u2019t come together until I\u2019d gone to bed, so I had to turn the lamp on to note it down, but I have a scene. I\u2019ll get on it tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing a book has sometimes been compared to giving birth. I can\u2019t speak to the comparison; it\u2019s for female writers to comment on such matters \u2013 not that I generally listen to female writers these days. But I was in metaphorical labor last night, working on the new Erling book, King of Rogaland. As I\u2019ve … Continue reading Writing pains<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[3603],"class_list":["post-15214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-king-of-rogaland"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15215,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15214\/revisions\/15215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}