I know exactly how it goes from here.

[kiya]

Section 179: 665 words. 1505 total. Done.
Section 180: 299 words. Done.
Section 181: Tensions and learning to grieve. Not written.
Section 182: Dealing with Garet. Not written.
Section 183: Loose ends and Lita. Not written.
Section 184: Fear the smuggler lord. Not written.
Section 185: Last reconciliations. Not written.
Section 186: Cathedral scene. Not written.
Section 187: Epilogue. Not written.

I know how it goes. I know how the rhythm works. I have all the ends that need to be tied up right there. I have it in my hands.

This is deeply weird, in a profoundly cool sort of way. I can hold the whole thing. I can see to the end from here, and I can see everything there; I've thrashed through the mists far enough that I can see my destination and the road to get there. Wheee!

Just so I say something that isn't writing content while Novel Eat Brain, I'm having a day full of trying to describe flavour in synaesthetic terms. Which led me to saying this on rasfc, about my lime-ginger mead: "At six months it was light and dry and at this point I go off into synaesthetic ramblings about pale silver-greenish blueness and clear, high-pitched crystalline notes, so I should stop now." This was apparently more useful than my rantings about why I don't like chocolate ice cream. (It tastes burnt, which is the wrong word, but it's the closest I can get without actually explaining that it's got a sharply square-angled cliff and falls off to the right into grey smoke, and I don't like flavours with sudden drops in.)

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

First, congratulations on getting to nearly the end of the book! I can try to understand from the point of view of getting to nearly the end of a major project, except that even major projects don't require as much personal investment from me as a novel does from its writer.

Second, since I don't have synaesthesia as a rule (although I think I've had a couple of episodes when I was very very tired, which suggests to me that if I were more open-minded I might experience it more often), the descriptions of things from synaesthete's point of view fascinate me, and I appreciate your willingness to describe things to me as you perceive them.

[kiya]

I actually have no idea if I have synaesthesia, but I do get a lot of things that come out in terms of other things. It's not constant, but it's persistent, if that makes sense.

Stupid question

[beltainelady.livejournal.com]

I've seen your updates now for a while, and still can't figure out what you're writing: a novel, or an RPG?

Sorry for the duh-ness.

Re: Stupid question

[brooksmoses]

It's a novel. Another thing that might make some help in figuring out the progress-reports is that it's written in relatively small sections (shorter than chapters) with alternating viewpoints -- odd-numbered sections are first-person from one of the main characters, and even-numbered sections are third person. In addition, the even-numbered sections are grouped in threes; the first of the three is something related to the main characters' household, the second of the three is related to part of the nearby neighborhood that the characters have close ties to, and the third is related to the governing social order that the characters are also part of. Thus, everything (except, apparently, the epilogue) fits into a repeating pattern of six sections.

Also, the section-names are more working-names rather than something that's likely to end up in the book, or so she tells me.

[larksdream]

*cheer!!*

I know what you mean about chocolate ice cream, actually. I never could eat it without a 2:1 vanilla ratio.

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

I read a short story recently with synesthesia as a core component. It was The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffery Ford. You may find it an interesting read, though it is not a happy story just to warn you upfront. I read in in a "Best of Science Fiction 2003" anthology, I haven't looked but I'm sure it is out in a few places.

It is nice to here your project has crystalized. I'm curious to read it when you are ready to let others peak, but you knew that already.

[the-real-diana.livejournal.com]

Congrats on almost being done with the novel! I can't wait to read it! I love your icon BTW.

How do you make mead? I've only had the honey variety.

Squee!

[suzanne.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

*hugs*

naiad.