Recently I’ve been having problems getting back into the revisions of Rosemirror. Part of it is because my author’s brain is more science fictional these days and an ever-running train of thought in my subconscious mind has to do with plot complications in two SF short stories of mine that I am actively working on.
One is the last short story in the Tower of the Rosewater Goblet set that I completed in 2014. I have major problems with this story because it had Big Ideas that did not fit the romantic romp and adventure I placed it in. But I’m slowly whittling away at it and the complex set of circumstances that trouble the destiny of not just my protagonist but her entire world; it’s not quite what I want for this narrative as the original aim was to tell a more intimate SFnal story. The other story belongs to the Tri-Sail set of SF stories and is a bit of an SFnal mystery which is not working as well as I would like. I have not sold any of the Tri-Sail stories yet but I have been actively working on them. Something about the mythogenic way the world is constructed impacts the pacing of my stories. I suppose editors have not been able to connect with that and I’m trying to make it work without losing that pacing and narrative style. And then there are the two sequels to Reversion, which is in an entirely different SFnal-verse altogether (and I really can’t wait to share the Crane-People story so I hope I have time to somehow finish it and make it something that cannot be ignored in slush). I suppose all of these short stories have Big Ideas underlying somewhat complex plots. I used to be able to make these Big Ideas work within the compressed format of short fiction through trial and error. Sadly, these past couple of years of focusing almost exclusively on novel-writing and revising while juggling my teaching, research and supervision tasks as a full-time academic has shifted my focus. I’m really glad I’m in a short fiction state of mind again but also somewhat apprehensive about it because it feels like I have to relearn a lot of things.
As for Rosemirror, I think the problem lies again with Big Ideas and the thought of troubling destiny. I feel that in my final push of revising Watermyth I raised the stakes significantly enough that I need to rethink several plot points and emotional beats for its sequel. Because the destinies of more than one character have been troubled by the changes I made to Watermyth — although I was very satisfied with those changes and they seem to have resonated with at least the handful of readers who got back to me. But now is not the time for worrying about the destinies of my Cantata of the Fourfold Realms characters — except, I suspect I am fretting about them at some level. More than that will have to wait. I am still in the thick of my supervision work, several major academic article and research deadlines plus grading now that the semester is drawing to a close. I also am supposed to be sitting for a music exam sometime between September and October. Ergo, being a novelist who is also holding down a very intense full-time job will always be a challenge. Even more so when I have to undertake the daunting task of looking after myself/managing my disabilities while also trying to fulfil my musical learning goals.
This long weekend has been for me about recovering from the past 4-5 working weekends. Mostly because I had no choice. I completely shut down in exhaustion. But at least the part of my brain that percolates and works on plot-points and complication did not shut down, and I’m excited for the storytelling adventures I am on — when I have the time and space for them.