Saturday 1 November 2003

Pic of the day: Pepsi X, the new Pepsi with extra caffeine! (And before all you Coca-Cola lovers delete your Chaos Node bookmarks, let me tell you that the choice of Pepsi is largely done by my large intestine. Pepsi X simply offers the best caffeine to diarrhea ratio of the products I find in my local shop. Your mileage may vary.)

A day in a writer's life

Of course, I am not really a writer. So most of my days are not days in a writer's life. But this one was - or at least how I imagine a writer's life. In reality, of course, being a writer is basically a low-paid service job. Somewhat similar to making burgers at McDonald's or Burger King: You don't actually deal with the customers face-to-face most of the time, but you still have to make what they want to buy, if you want to stay in your job. The big difference between writing and flipping burgers is the degree of freedom. I guess it is more like cooking at a restaurant, now that I think about it; but the principle still holds. You may cook what you like, but only if the customers like it too.

(Yes, I know I use too many commas and semicolons. I do this to make my text easier to read, although for the very literate reader it could have the opposite effect. I just have this gut feeling that some people might get discouraged by looking at a seemingly endless train of words marching on and on into the distance with no end in sight and with no marker of any kind to break up the monotony of this compact wall of words which blocks the page like a regiment of verbal soldiers that in a quietly menacing way threatens the brain into silence. And now I beg forgiveness, for bringing such a monstrous statement into the world.) (And for the record, I do know the difference between "which" and "that"; I just don't practice it wholeheartedly. In my native Norwegian we use the same word in both these cases when we start a new sentence.)

***

Anyway, the writing. Grammar is for editors! My novel is now at 4280 words. My arm is teetering on the edge of Repetitive Strain Injury. Some of those words were made with voice recognition. My voice is now so rusty I can barely cough. My rival Tsaiko is well past 6000 words, even though she started six hours after me. (And she is writing a terse, dramatic page turner; my novel seems positively fluffy in comparison.)

But in the end, the important thing is that I had truckloads of fun. I spent much of my day in the imaginary world where my characters live, and I enjoyed this "vacation" greatly. I am thinking about my novel when I wake up in the morning, over my meals, and when I go to bed late at night. Perhaps it is a little bit like being in love? Not that I would know, of course, but I have read about such things quite a bit. Anyway, it is fun while it lasts, and I intend to continue until my body fails. (Or until I get bored of it, but I think I can count on my arm to fail me first...)

Oh yes. The stuff I have written up till now. Updated after each chapter. DarkEyes - a novel in progress. No money back. Perhaps it is trash - but it is free trash.