Almost Forgot St. Paddy

Wow, 1:30 p.m. and I just realized it’s St. Patrick’s Day. There’s no reason I ought to remember except that I’m part O’Brien and those O’Briens like to spread around their Catholic guilt — even within my heathen veins.

ireland1

Interestingly enough, I’m emmersed in all things Irish at this moment. I’m swimming in mist and rain, in gloom and dreariness. I’m exploring drystone walls and green landscapes, Celtic tumuli and Medieval relics. Atmospherics everywhere, or so I hope.

My novel is about as contrary to St. Patrick and his missionary goodness as you can get. If anything, I might, just possibly, poke a little fun at Catholicism. No offense to anyone; I figure I can because it’s a sickness that runs in my family. (Kidding! Kind of.)

I’m on the tail-end of this revision. Really. I am. Down to the individual words. Got a wearying list of them I’m “Find”ing because I ran into them too often while reading the printed manuscript. Various forms of the words “shiver” and “lurk.” “Gaze.” “Creak.” “Glance.”

And, for some reason, “smile,” too. Despite the fact that my characters are running around on a serious quest, I’ve got them smiling alot–usually as subterfuge. Gotta remedy that.

This is THE most boring revision task. But it’s necessary, so return I must. Back to all those blasted smiles.

Have you noticed that you fall back on certain words when drafting your stories?

0 comments on “Almost Forgot St. Paddy

  • Hmmm…a boring task perhaps but so so glad you’re attentive to it. We have all read books where there’s a “word” or “words” that make us go oh please enuf.
    One of the things that drives me nuts though is when the writer has characters whose names are close together – like Claire and Clarissa or Robert and Ronnie and Renaldo. No, really. Some books have nearly same name characters which makes it rough to keep people straight.
    So, away to your work! And hello to the great little Luna!

    Reply
  • tracer, that’s too funny. I just sent you an email; I haven’t gotten far enough in reading your ms. to notice that. 🙂

    Hi Oh, you make a great point about names. I tend to that, actually. In fact, an editor just pointed out to me that I gotta change my characters’ names in a short story. I don’t know what it is — I guess I get a pleasing sound stuff in my head.

    Reply

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