I’ve now finished taking my on-paper edits and using them to make changes into the Pages file for The House of Snow & Apples. It’s only a 40,000 word novella (or novelette? I can never remember the divisions and categories), so it didn’t take nearly as long as a full 100,000 word novel would have. One thing I noticed that I haven’t quite been aware of before: it seems I’m much less content with my dialogue than my exposition. In places where the text was dialogue-heavy, I made substantially more changes than in the exposition-heavy areas. I don’t know if I’m being more critical of the dialogue, or whether I’m just getting more attuned to the tweaking needed to separate out character voices. It’s something I’ll keep an eye on.
At any rate, I’m going to take a short break from the Clay-o-the-Green. By my calculation I have written about 220,000 words in The Winter King over the last year and a bit, plus multiple edits and drafts. I need a short break, a palate cleanser. The spirit-haunted landscape of the Clay-of-the-Green is starting to infiltrate my dreams. I need a brief respite.
So, to that end, I’m going to try to not think about the Clay-o-the-Green for a week or so. I have 2-3 contemporary short stories I’d like to write, which will make for a nice change of pace.
And finally, at long last, I’ve set up a dedicated Gmail account. If you want to reach me for whatever reason, the hobgoodfellowe@gmail is now active.