Things I've learnt: endings and emotional honesty

Rope of Words is a limited fine-press edition of numbered, handbound books, the result of a collaboration between me and the artist, Lin Kerr. I wrote the story over a period of 5 years: this series of blog posts is about its writing process and the various illuminations that came from sailing straight into the rocks at every turn. At least I have the advantage of hindsight, to know the story did work out in the end - the artist who illustrated it, Lin Kerr, shared her process from the outset, with no such reassurance. You can see excerpts and images from the book here.

Words have a life of their own

The Woman who was a Bitch

'In broken words, she tried to explain how she’d been reduced to those increasingly desperate acronyms and abbreviations.
“You still let go,” he said, in the words of one syllable that were left to him.
They sat on the silent moonlit moor where nothing beside remained.
“So what will you do?” he said at last. “Will you go back?”
“Back to the golden valley?” She shook her head.  “It burnt down.” She thought about all the words she’d collected and their electric charge.  “I think I burnt it.”
His face, until then as hard as an exhibit behind glass, turned uncertain. “I don’t think it can burn down.”
“It did. I saw it. I was there. Well – some miles above it and accelerating fast, but I saw the trees catch fire. Lightning hit the tower. It was very striking.”
None of their truncated words were adequate to that task.  They lay down, a careful distance apart, to sleep.  She balanced the angels’ phial against the two unwanted words that stood between them.  And they slept.'

Sir Terry Pratchett in conversation: Virtual WCF 2013

The Oxford hall is crammed for Terry Pratchett's talk; the reverential quiet makes it feel more like a cathedral than a convention room. Into the silence, Pratchett cries, "Hello!" and the audience roars back "Hello!" in joy and applause. As soon as he's introduced, the applause bursts out again. This convention is full of authors that are admired, swooned over, celebrated, but right now, the mood is pure love.