To A or not to A?

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I'm currently hard at work on my latest book, which has the working title of either "A Mouth Full of Ashes" or "Mouth Full of Ashes", depending on how I feel that day. This has become one of those things that I find enormously burdensome. To include the "A" or not include the "A". I'm currently leaning towards including the "A". But that's right now.

It's a difficult book to write in some ways, because - as much as I love and am very connected with the characters and the storyline - it requires me to delve into a very dark place every time I revisit these characters. Coming home after a hard day's work and diving into someone else's personal hell isn't always easy.

Maybe I should just turn on the TV and relax with an episode of "The Real Housewives of...

Or maybe hell is just a relative term.

Incidentally, should hell be capitalized? Heaven always is. And let's face it, they're both pretty big. I'm unsure of their current populations, ratio-wise - I'd have to look it up on Wikipedia - but I'm guessing it's around 50/50.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 7, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    It's quite pleasant to spend hours angsting over the placement of a comma or the inclusion (or otherwise) of an a, isn't it?

    You're brilliantly prolific, Andrew. Good luck with the next one. I won't even venture an opinion about whether or not you should include the A in A Mouthful of Ashes. I'd only come back here & tell you I've changed my mind... again... and again.

    Have a good weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew BissApril 8, 2012 at 9:46 AM

    Ha! Yes, absolutely it is, Helen. It reminds me of that Oscar Wilde quote...I'm going to find it now. Okay, I'm back - here it is: "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."

    I've a feeling I'll be wrestling with that 'A for quite some time to come. Thanks so much for the good wishes. This one's a bit different to what I usually write.

    ReplyDelete

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