Sometimes two projects cooperate.\u00a0 The main line runs smoothly on Track One, and the little branch line uses Track Two.\u00a0 Or, if there is no Track Two, it uses Track One when the main line isn’t using it, and otherwise uses the sidings so the main line can pass it again.\u00a0\u00a0 This is easiest if the main line is carrying one kind of story cargo, and the branch line is carrying a very different kind, so the manager can move the switches in the right place at the right time.\u00a0\u00a0 Experienced Authors look at the schedule for year and start working on getting the branch line train where it needs to be\u00a0 early.\u00a0\u00a0 And I did.<\/p>\n
If, however, there is no Track Two, and the story cargoes are very much alike (same universe, same characters, similar setting), and the scheduling is tight, switching may be inefficient and even ineffective, so that instead of the main line schedule being kept, with the trains passing each other smoothly….you can end up with the mainline train (in this case, carrying the next Novel)\u00a0 nose to nose with the branch line\u00a0 train (in this case carrying the Story for Anthology)\u00a0 on the same track.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They both need the track NOW.\u00a0 Branch line is due at its station first.\u00a0\u00a0 Main line train has way more mass, and thus is pushing the branch line train backwards down the track.\u00a0\u00a0 This started in July and continued month after month.<\/p>\n
This is, at any rate, the best description I can come up with for what October writing was like.\u00a0\u00a0 Novel was just over half drafted by then and making time…a novel in that internal condition is in no mood to stop, or slow down, or share mental space with a story.\u00a0 Story was on the track but being pushed around by Novel’s insistence that this was its<\/em> track, it had right of way, and that miserable little old switch engine with one car on the track should get OFF.\u00a0 Stories generally have smaller engines (mine, anyway)\u00a0 but they can gain track time if they’re different enough to startle the Novel into giving them space.\u00a0 Even a novel may pause to chuckle at a funny story, for instance.\u00a0 But in this case Story was set in the Vatta universe, and the timing for the story was between Victory Conditions<\/em> and Cold Welcome<\/em>, a necessity to avoid spoilering either Cold Welcome<\/em> or the next book.\u00a0 From Novel’s point of view, all that stuff was over with<\/em>, years in the past now.\u00a0\u00a0 So…Novel pushed Story off the track, warping the frame of both the engine and its flat car.<\/p>\n Author dragged Story over to a siding and said ‘Try again.”\u00a0 Story said “I hurt all over.\u00a0 I can’t move.”\u00a0\u00a0 Author (with the calendar in sight) said “Try harder…get to the end of the siding at least.”\u00a0 Story said, “My engine’s all broke.\u00a0 My back hurts.”\u00a0\u00a0 Author threw some writing tools at Story and said “FIX it.”\u00a0 Author cut Novel’s power supply down by half and tried to transfer power to Story.\u00a0 Novel blew out a huge plume of steam (and it’s not a steam engine) and surged another 2000 words onward.\u00a0 “MY TRACK!”\u00a0 it yelled.\u00a0 Story said, “See?\u00a0 See what he does?\u00a0 And my head hurts and I’m dizzy and I just can’t DO it!”\u00a0 and with that fell over on its side, off the siding and into a ditch.<\/p>\n Author, aware of the most powerful train on Track One, the dreaded Deadline Express, now only ten days away, its headlight gleaming on the rails,\u00a0 cut all power to Novel,\u00a0 yanked Story out of the ditch by brute force, and–gasping and cursing–carried it on Author’s back down the track past Novel, setting it gently on Track One.\u00a0 Then Author poured all of Author’s remaining strength into its feeble (by this time) engine, forcing word after word into it.\u00a0\u00a0 Its warped wheels wobbled and slid on the track, turning v..e..r..y.. slowly.\u00a0 Finally, past midnight on the last night, Story lurched into its station and sank down panting.\u00a0 Author, bleary-eyed, went to work on it, rearranging its load into a less raggedy, threadbare, and generally unkempt appearance, polishing, combing, polishing again, and finally plucking Story from the ramshackle flatbed it had been sitting on and sending it on its way to its editor.\u00a0\u00a0 Then shoveled the wreckage of the little engine that couldn’t and the warped flatcar off the tracks and spent the next day trudging wearily back up the tracks toward the mainline Novel train.<\/p>\n Author climbed into the engine of Novel that evening and attempted a restart.\u00a0 As expected, Novel was in a snit (“You turned me OFF!\u00a0 On the track!\u00a0\u00a0 For that…that snivelling little midget of a Story train!”) and produced several more blasts of steam.\u00a0\u00a0 Author, in no mood for this, snarled “Get OVER yourself!” in a tone Novel had not heard before, and Novel muttered, “Well, since you ask nicely<\/em>…” and deigned to start moving wheels and covering ground\u00a0 with a few hundred words that night, and a regular amount the next three days.<\/p>\n And that was my October.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course October had other surprises and complications beyond the writing life, but the writing life did its best to dominate.\u00a0 Now it’s November.\u00a0\u00a0 Novel more or less happy chugging down the rails.\u00a0\u00a0 Author was staggering around for several days after getting Story off, but may now be caught up on sleep.\u00a0\u00a0 Just in time to start the serious prep for Thanksgiving, house guests,\u00a0 and the deluge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes two projects cooperate.\u00a0 The main line runs smoothly on Track One, and the little branch line uses Track Two.\u00a0 Or, if there is no Track Two, it uses Track One when the main line isn’t using it, and otherwise uses the sidings so the main line can pass it again.\u00a0\u00a0 This is easiest if Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,10],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-progress","category-the-writing-life","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}