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My dinner with Pat
Nov. 9th, 2002 10:03 pmI got together with Pat Wrede last night at the Good Earth restaurant, which is our place for noodling books. She got a big plate of nachos with beans and cheese, and I got the black bean and yam ragout, and I handed her the five or so pages that I read at World Fantasy. She read them and made appreciative noises, and then we plunged to work. I took notes, but as often happens, they looked incoherent to me afterwards.
( Here's much too much information about what we talked about )
The restaurant was closing up around us, and I was yawning nonstop, so we finally wound the conversation to a close. "You're not really ready to write yet," Pat told me. "You need to do some more reading, to feed stuff to your back brain, and some more figuring stuff out. I've ruined books for myself before when I've tried to start writing too early."
I nodded, a little discouraged, but her assessment felt right to me. "But I can still write those disconnected scenes, don't you think? The Mirror-of-Galadriel ones: 'Things that were, and things that are, and things that have not yet come to pass.'"
"Yep, you can do those, as long as you don't try to apply structure prematurely. But start reading fairy tales. Norse and Russian. And maybe some Native American ones."
"This is different than any book I've done before," I told her, "because I seem to want to write all over the book at once. That's how![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kijjohnson does it, writing scenes and then stitching them together, like a patchwork quilt."
"Talk topameladean," she suggested. "That's how she works, too. Maybe she might have some other practical suggestions."
"But is is a book, isn't it?" I asked her anxiously. "There really is a book here somewhere, isn't there?"
"Oh, yes," she said confidently. "There really is something taking shape here. I think it's going to be a fine book."
There you have it. My mentor has spoken. It's going to be a fine book.
I must remember that, when I'm stuck in the miserable middle. Pat says it's going to be a fine book.
Cheers,
Peg
( Here's much too much information about what we talked about )
The restaurant was closing up around us, and I was yawning nonstop, so we finally wound the conversation to a close. "You're not really ready to write yet," Pat told me. "You need to do some more reading, to feed stuff to your back brain, and some more figuring stuff out. I've ruined books for myself before when I've tried to start writing too early."
I nodded, a little discouraged, but her assessment felt right to me. "But I can still write those disconnected scenes, don't you think? The Mirror-of-Galadriel ones: 'Things that were, and things that are, and things that have not yet come to pass.'"
"Yep, you can do those, as long as you don't try to apply structure prematurely. But start reading fairy tales. Norse and Russian. And maybe some Native American ones."
"This is different than any book I've done before," I told her, "because I seem to want to write all over the book at once. That's how
kijjohnson does it, writing scenes and then stitching them together, like a patchwork quilt.""Talk to
pameladean," she suggested. "That's how she works, too. Maybe she might have some other practical suggestions.""But is is a book, isn't it?" I asked her anxiously. "There really is a book here somewhere, isn't there?"
"Oh, yes," she said confidently. "There really is something taking shape here. I think it's going to be a fine book."
There you have it. My mentor has spoken. It's going to be a fine book.
I must remember that, when I'm stuck in the miserable middle. Pat says it's going to be a fine book.
Cheers,
Peg
