lj-writes:
lj-writes:
Okay enough fun and games. Baby’s sleeping, WRITE!
1,647 words in a day are more than enough, I’m tired and need to stretch. Thanks kiddo for sleeping so well, you’re a huge help.
@heartandstride Thank you for asking! I’ve decided to write at least a little every day to get past a recent block and keep up a rhythm. I’ve written every day for the past four days or so–I really have to start keeping track–even if it was less than a hundred words, and I’m getting to a place where I’m excited to write again. I’m only about 14,000 words into the current draft (this is like my third first draft God help me), but I’m happy with the direction it’s going so far and the characters keep tossing me big and small surprises as always happens in writing. My goal is to finish the current draft by next June and there will be days when I can’t write or can only write a little, so I’m trying to go steady if not fast.
It’s weird having to ease readers into such a different language and ways of thought. The novel is in English for now but I’m trying to replicate as much as possible the feel of how Koreans thought and spoke in the 1st century B.C. Korean does not natively have words for “North” and “South” and so on, for instance (ironic, seeing how these directions have come to geopolitically define us…), but rather used “behind” and “front” with the assumption that the speaker faced south. It’s a different way of conceptualizing directions where you first orient yourself, mentally speaking, instead of having the same direction regardless of where you’re facing.
The whole thing got confusing real fast today when the heroine looked over her shoulder while facing north, so in her head she was looking “forward” while facing “back.” Look, my whole story might be about fighting the Chinese occupation but credit where it’s due, I’m so glad my ancestors stole words for the cardinal directions and a whole lot besides from the Chinese.