Dame Boudicca

 My as yet untitled novel is finally finished (at the moment it has the uninspiring work title of "The personal ad" - but that won't work if I ever make something real of it). It came in just under 125,000 words which I think is a good length for a normal book. I fear it's a romance, which is a genre I don't read much myself - but at least the love interest is not a man most women would actually want much to do with. No, he is not abusive, he is not unfaithful, but he is very full of himself and doesn't really care about the consequences his actions have for others.

But as I am the author I know he cares for my main character very much so I'll let him have her - and hope she won't suffer too much from it.

The funny thing is (or perhaps the scary thing is) that this is the third time I write this story. The first time was back in 2009 when I bought the book "They call me naught Lola - Personal ads from the London review of books" (look it up, buy it, it's hilarious) and that gave me the idea for a writer working for a lifestyle magazine who is pressured by her boss to put such an ad in a paper and go dating and then write about it. The first time around I wrote the beginning of the story and then the end, and realized that perhaps there need to be something more in it - not to mention that the motives for the characters were a bit... unfinished. So I scrapped it.

Version two became much longer than that, I kind of knew where I wanted the story to go this time - I actually finished it. Sort of. The only problem was that most of the story was the main character walking around just waiting - waiting for her dates, waiting for her boss, waiting for her ex, and the chapters where something interesting actually happened were few and far between. It would have been a drag for anyone to read. It was a drag even for me.  So, it was finished, but that didn't make me much happier and I felt I had let a great idea go to waste.... Didn't like that. 

So in April this year I went for a third round, and seeing the structural difficulties I had had, I planned the story  much more than I ever do. I kept some scenes (though I rewrote them completely) from version 2 and took away all the annoying waiting, I still had e-mail conversations between the main character and her boss between (most of) the chapters, and I finally managed to make sense of why things turned out the way they did, I finally understood why my characters acted the way they did (I even managed to understand why she had dumped her last boyfriend). And I had a lot of descriptions (which is where I mostly fail otherwise). Now I'll have to let it rest before beginning the editing. I'd better since I have another to do in between. And I have some new stories to write on too, I have something to fall back on (I hate finishing a story and then having nothing new to turn my attention to, it's not good for me). 

So I'll end this with some happy jumping up and down. *jumps happily up and down*

It is really nice to be away out in the real world from time to time - at least if it involves working with books and writing (or doing stuff which will make it possible to do so). I went to the Swedish Book Fair in Gothenburg - a gigantic thing with all and everyone in the Swedish publishing world, and then some. The point is to find cheap books, especially those from publishing companies you've never heard of!

And if you have a nice idea for a nice book it might be a good idea to talk to a publisher about it. And shake hands with them you already write for.

Of course I did all of it. I have a suitcase full of books - everything from comics to archaeology reports (I have too many interests, I find too many books I like), shook hands and promised to mail an outline. I was so nervous talking business, but I still think it went well (at least, it obviously did not go wrong!).

You know, that advise you get all the time. It has some truth to it (especially if not taken to literally).

But what do you do if you suffer from prosopagnosia (facial blindness), when you couldn't describe the face of someone you knew if your life depended on it even? If you are incapable of reading facial expressions (at least, if they are not really exaggerated). Does that mean you have to write stories about faceless beings who never shows the slightest hint of an expression on their faces? It would be all right if your character had the same condition, but if you don't want that...?

This is not just a question out of idle curiosity, I have these problems, and so far I have avoided it by using generic descriptions (put together from stuff I've read), but it feels a bit like cheating (no, no, not word-by-word, of course not - but still!) - and I'm terrified someone will, eventually, see through it. After all, I know it's fake!

Or, do I have no choice but to continue as I do now?

[somewhat cross-posted]

Well, actually part infinite number since it's been an ongoing project since last summer - when I began writing this dramatic tale of... love (?) and... friendship (?).

Anyhow... I'm into the editing process right now. Not a place I'm terrible keen on visiting, but it has to be done. I passed the half-way mark yesterday, and looking at the finished product I must admit I'm very pleased. I just managed to save my male lead from acting all whiny and instead tapped into his true character of looking down on everything and everyone. You don't whine then, after all.

And next chapter will be staring Christmas. It is SO the wrong weather for that, but I can't very well wait for the season to turn to the right one, now can I?

So I am back in London for a week of fun and games, culture and entertainment. Same hotel, different season and different company. I loved it then, everything is pointing at me loving it just as much this time. And the room is better this time around too (not that it was bad in any way before - but a bathtub is always a bathtub, you know...

This far we have taken it rather easy, and it has been terribly nice - and not killing in any way. We stumbled into Victoria & Albert so that I could point out some nice samurai armours, and take a bunch of pictures of clothing (better camera this time than last), and visited the Freemasons to have a look around - and my boyfriend bought a cute teddy-bear complete with apron! We resisted the Masonic gift-wrapping paper though.

Of course we have gone shopping, no surprise there, and it is already time for me to start wondering about how I will get everything back with me. And we have eaten very well indeed. There are a bunch of nice restaurants just around the bend from where we are staying (Earl's court, South Kensington, btw), and today we tried out an extremely genuine Chinese... sorry Taiwanese, restaurant. We were just about the only guests in the vicinity not talking Chinese in some shape or form. And the food was great - a far cry from what you get at home (I had gigantic meat-ball with salted egg yolk).

And now, while my loved one is struggling with the last touches of the comments of a book-manuscript, I will try to get some writing done too!