catvalente

The funny thing about writing Fairyland is that it really is a palimpsest.

I'm writing a new novel on the back of the old one. Bits of the old one show through--I'm stuck with what I set up in Palimpsest the book. I can't change the opening paragraph of Fairyland, for example. If I were starting from scratch I might prefer a more gradual beginning, rather than removing the protagonist from her home within a few lines. I might try to set up her home life more. But when writing the adult novel, I wanted as much information about why this book meant as much to that protagonist as it did, and both are portal fantasies. So now I have this beginning I established as the beginning before I knew I would end up writing the whole book. And that is the beginning. I am a continuity hound, after all.

Ditto the title. I picked a gargantuan, ornate title in part to pastiche the ornate titles of a certain kind of book. And now that's what it is. It's not a title that one would pick for a YA (or middle grade, I suppose this is floats somewhere between, really) novel published today. It is really a lot to type out, and getting it to fit in the graphics was hilarious. But it's what I established. I have to work within that.

And that's fascinating for me. Usually when I sit down to write a novel I have free reign of anything I want. The first few chapters winnow down choices, but I haven't often worked in these kinds of bounds--where the restrictions are ones I set up, two years ago when I was a different me writing Palimpsest. I've worked writing comedy SF video games for small children, which is another set of bounds completely. But dealing with a continuity I set up never thinking I'd have to deal with it? Half awesome, half facepalm.

But I am discovering how much I like writing for younger readers. That's not something I ever thought I'd say.