Night out at Kieran's
Oct. 25th, 2003 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrHeaded out to Kieran's last night with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minnehaha B, to enjoy Strong Bow cider, Paddy O'Brien's music and the wonderful pot roast sandwiches. I was drawing plot diagrams on the backs of paper placemats when B. showed up. Great fun, with all sorts of plot parallels and arrows pointing off to themes and characters. He grabbed another place mat for scribbling notes and started questioning me at great length, mostly about the magical system, because I need it as a context for the story. I've brainstormed books with people before, but it was an intensely interesting experience to flesh out a magic system by having a non-fiction writer asking the leading questions--especially someone who thinks about system theory for a living. I need to give a great deal more thought to what the magic does. What is it for? How is it used, if used correctly? What is the price for using it wrong?
There was one other thing he gave me that I need to think about. I was talking about how difficult it has been to get to the book. There's been HPEF board stuff, and kid stuff, and well, on and on, blah blah blah. "Have I ever talked to you about the difference between what is urgent and what is important?" he asked. "Many managers have trouble because they can never see the difference, and they always pick the wrong thing to concentrate on: the urgent thing, rather than the important thing. It'll be awfully easy for you to keep putting off working on this book, because even though it's the most important thing, it's never urgent."
"Not unless I get it under contract," I agreed, a little gloomily. "And I hated working under contract." I'll have to think about that distinction between urgent and important some more. I looked at B. a little impishly. "So . . . when are you going to start working on your next book?"
He groaned. "I'm in denial."
He also handed me one very cool detail which I'd like to work in somehow: I could have Rolf stab someone with an ice dagger at some point. How convenient to have your murder weapon melt away!
Kieran's seems to be a magical place for me; I always have a good time while I'm there. But I was really extremely tired. I wanted to wait around to give the pot roast sandwich a chance to settle so I could follow up with some Bailey's chocolate cake in a couple of hours, but my eyelids were drooping so much that I was worried about driving home safely. B. had to leave to go pick up K. at the airport anyway, so we made an early night of it.
minnehaha B, to enjoy Strong Bow cider, Paddy O'Brien's music and the wonderful pot roast sandwiches. I was drawing plot diagrams on the backs of paper placemats when B. showed up. Great fun, with all sorts of plot parallels and arrows pointing off to themes and characters. He grabbed another place mat for scribbling notes and started questioning me at great length, mostly about the magical system, because I need it as a context for the story. I've brainstormed books with people before, but it was an intensely interesting experience to flesh out a magic system by having a non-fiction writer asking the leading questions--especially someone who thinks about system theory for a living. I need to give a great deal more thought to what the magic does. What is it for? How is it used, if used correctly? What is the price for using it wrong?There was one other thing he gave me that I need to think about. I was talking about how difficult it has been to get to the book. There's been HPEF board stuff, and kid stuff, and well, on and on, blah blah blah. "Have I ever talked to you about the difference between what is urgent and what is important?" he asked. "Many managers have trouble because they can never see the difference, and they always pick the wrong thing to concentrate on: the urgent thing, rather than the important thing. It'll be awfully easy for you to keep putting off working on this book, because even though it's the most important thing, it's never urgent."
"Not unless I get it under contract," I agreed, a little gloomily. "And I hated working under contract." I'll have to think about that distinction between urgent and important some more. I looked at B. a little impishly. "So . . . when are you going to start working on your next book?"
He groaned. "I'm in denial."
He also handed me one very cool detail which I'd like to work in somehow: I could have Rolf stab someone with an ice dagger at some point. How convenient to have your murder weapon melt away!
Kieran's seems to be a magical place for me; I always have a good time while I'm there. But I was really extremely tired. I wanted to wait around to give the pot roast sandwich a chance to settle so I could follow up with some Bailey's chocolate cake in a couple of hours, but my eyelids were drooping so much that I was worried about driving home safely. B. had to leave to go pick up K. at the airport anyway, so we made an early night of it.
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Date: 2003-10-26 07:50 am (UTC)I am quite enthusiastic about FlanklinCovey stuff. It is worth reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and their planners are the best!
Carol
PS. Peg, your journal rocks
*back to lurkdom*