Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Some Children Are More Difficult Than Others

There are stories that are gifts. When I wrote "Out Of All Them Bright Stars," the story that won my first Nebula, I put the words down as fast as they came to me and changed almost nothing. Other stories, however....
The "China story," most of which takes place in San Diego, is a mess. It's a physical mess because some of it is in longhand, some typed, and some in cryptic notations like "Renata and two-slit experiments," which are supposed to remind me of whole scenes as yet unwritten. The story will apparently be quite long. Also, I realized just two days ago that there is a need to work in solar flares, currently not present in any scene. I will need them later. And I'm still not sure of the ending. None of this is good. I know writers -- Connie Willis is one -- who work from detailed outlines, but I have never been able to do this. I write like a man dashing past a graveyard at night: Go as fast as you can and don't look back.
And speaking of China -- I finally finished the course of malaria prophylactic pills I was told by Passport Health Clinic to take before I left the US. It turns out there was no malaria in Chengdu, but if it shows up in upstate New York, I'm covered.

3 comments:

tcastleb said...

Hi. Good to see your blog--I followed a couple people's links here. But I have to admit I'm intrigued by this story because I've been to China (Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong) and I live in San Diego. So, mostly, if you need any San Diego details (including pics,) holler. I'm Clarion '05, btw.

Nancy Kress said...

Thanks! I might need San Diego help, yes.
Nancy

Ruhan Zhao said...

Nancy, if you need any help about China, feel free to ask me.

--Ruhan