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Here's why I said my notebooks were a cruel prank on any academics who get interested in my work after I'm gone. My handwriting is execrable. Even I can't always read it.
I won't transcribe what I wrote because it's the very first notes for what I hope may someday be my third and final dragon novel -- the one that synthesizes and makes sense of the first two in a totally new manner. Down at the bottom right is the annotation "12/22/08 First Stirrings" -- that little spiral near the end of the second word means "ing." It's a scrap from a shorthand system I started to learn decades ago and gave up after acquiring only a spattering of shortcuts. / means "and" and \ means "the." I believe they'll pop up a lot in this notebook.
You'll note that the not-sign pops up around the very first word. That means that my protagonist's name is not Gail. (I already used Abigail for a protagonist, and I try not to double-dip on names.) But I wanted to jot down the ideas while they were still fresh, despite not having the right name for the character yet.
The piece of yellow paper explains itself. Here's the transcription:
This is a piece of confetti snatched from the air
at the parade celebrating the Phillies' championship
in 2008! I grabbed it myself.
mjs
Does it really say that? Yes, it does. I wouldn't lie to you about such a thing.
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It's all great, Michael. But will it be possible to see something like Diagraming Darger and Surplus?
ReplyDeleteAlexei
I did almost no diagramming of Darger & Surplus -- something about the pace of how it was written made that not necessary. But there are, later in the notebook, notes made as I was writing the novel. Plot points mostly. A couple of them will have to be covered up to keep from spoiling the experience, but most of them will just be presented straighforwardly.
ReplyDeleteOh boy, another dragon novel? Way to get my hopes up. I feel another re-read of the other two coming on.
ReplyDelete