A Writer's Notebook Day Fourteen
I had a busy day, and so did not have the opportunity to spend as much time writing as I would have liked. By the time I sat down to work, it was already getting late and I was rather tired, so I did not really do as much writing as I might have liked. In that moment, I felt a bit stagnant, but it was a matter of being tired, and I took a bit of time to think before coming back to do this blog (which is late, and I apologize for that).
In that time, I came to thinking about the story and how to keep moving it forward. I came back to an idea that had been in my mind earlier, but had not entirely worked at the time, but now it seems to fit quite well. As well, I am considering some other additions to the plot and the progress of the story, some that could bring in additional characters and settings, and may provide opportunities for getting further into the mind of Carter in a way that could be revealing.
There is something that is still coming out, and it has not been revealed yet in the story, probably because I am not certain of the entire revelation, let alone how to produce it. The ideas that lie behind the words need to develop in their own way, and I can see that I am on a path towards recognizing something particular, and I have the feeling that a smarter part of my mind knew it from the start and is letting me catch up, but has pushed things into the story that I may not be aware of at this point. I mean that, certain aspects of characterization and even word choice can bubble up to the surface of the mind to be placed on the page, even when the writer is not consciously aware of certain layers of meaning that will become more apparent later. I do not know if this is the case, but I know that I feel that the sense I have of being lost in writing this is a necessary aspect of this stories process.
Perhaps, for me, that is universal, and my examination of this story is allowing me to be aware of that in a way I had not considered. I am aware that what I am suggesting may be illusion, and it might well be that the future of the story grows out of those crumbs of meaning, through processes outside the conscious mind, but in either case, I am sensing that the story contains more than I had thought. I am considering how the beginning can change, and I am contemplating aspects of the ending.
The middle, where I am right now, will take some more work. Their is information that has to come out, and getting it out of Carter is not easy. Some of it I am already aware of, and Bimble's acting, within the story, to understand Carter. Little details are slipping through at certain moments, and what comes together is not entirely clear yet, but Bimble is able to piece enough to begin asking the right question and attempting to get the needed answers. I know that certain things were set up for a reason, and the reasons are becoming clear as I keep going.
As well, I am starting to be able to let myself riff, at least in my head. I have to be able to play with the idea by adding to it and seeing what happens. I had an idea that was connected to Bimble and Carter eating a meal together, and I was trying to think of the proper setting. Something odd would be necessary, but I also wanted to make it somehow classic, and to avoid making it too ironic. I started with an idea of a diner, which makes sense, compared to many other cuisines I had thought of. The trick is to make it somehow peculiar, and yet that peculiarity should seem fitting. I thought of those old diner trolleys. Some still exist, often parked in a permanent location as a restaurant. The question was, what to do with this to tweak the idea in a strange direction.
I thought about the question of where the diner was parked. It would have to be close by, so in the industrial neighborhood; It came to me that it could be modified, but that seemed to be wrong. Then I struck on the idea of putting the diner inside of a garage or another building, and that made a strange sense, but still did not go quite far enough. I also did not quite get them going out to this place. I considered the idea of a diner inside the warehouse, but that would only work if Bimble ran it and no one else was there. Not a real diner, just a parked trolley that Bimble kept and used as his commissary. That would not work. I considered, though, that I set up the warehouse as having large industrial bay style doors. Thus, I could have the diner just drive in. This makes a lot of sense for numerous reasons, and makes it difficult for Carter to avoid. It also allows me to make a very straightforward type of diner, but it's normality is part of what makes it so strange. To be honest, I am not certain of the menu entirely yet, but it is a play on that classic style of restaurant.
Okay, it is quite late now, and I need to get some sleep. I have a lot more about the story in my head at the moment, and if I had the energy, I would be working on it directly...
In that time, I came to thinking about the story and how to keep moving it forward. I came back to an idea that had been in my mind earlier, but had not entirely worked at the time, but now it seems to fit quite well. As well, I am considering some other additions to the plot and the progress of the story, some that could bring in additional characters and settings, and may provide opportunities for getting further into the mind of Carter in a way that could be revealing.
There is something that is still coming out, and it has not been revealed yet in the story, probably because I am not certain of the entire revelation, let alone how to produce it. The ideas that lie behind the words need to develop in their own way, and I can see that I am on a path towards recognizing something particular, and I have the feeling that a smarter part of my mind knew it from the start and is letting me catch up, but has pushed things into the story that I may not be aware of at this point. I mean that, certain aspects of characterization and even word choice can bubble up to the surface of the mind to be placed on the page, even when the writer is not consciously aware of certain layers of meaning that will become more apparent later. I do not know if this is the case, but I know that I feel that the sense I have of being lost in writing this is a necessary aspect of this stories process.
Perhaps, for me, that is universal, and my examination of this story is allowing me to be aware of that in a way I had not considered. I am aware that what I am suggesting may be illusion, and it might well be that the future of the story grows out of those crumbs of meaning, through processes outside the conscious mind, but in either case, I am sensing that the story contains more than I had thought. I am considering how the beginning can change, and I am contemplating aspects of the ending.
The middle, where I am right now, will take some more work. Their is information that has to come out, and getting it out of Carter is not easy. Some of it I am already aware of, and Bimble's acting, within the story, to understand Carter. Little details are slipping through at certain moments, and what comes together is not entirely clear yet, but Bimble is able to piece enough to begin asking the right question and attempting to get the needed answers. I know that certain things were set up for a reason, and the reasons are becoming clear as I keep going.
As well, I am starting to be able to let myself riff, at least in my head. I have to be able to play with the idea by adding to it and seeing what happens. I had an idea that was connected to Bimble and Carter eating a meal together, and I was trying to think of the proper setting. Something odd would be necessary, but I also wanted to make it somehow classic, and to avoid making it too ironic. I started with an idea of a diner, which makes sense, compared to many other cuisines I had thought of. The trick is to make it somehow peculiar, and yet that peculiarity should seem fitting. I thought of those old diner trolleys. Some still exist, often parked in a permanent location as a restaurant. The question was, what to do with this to tweak the idea in a strange direction.
I thought about the question of where the diner was parked. It would have to be close by, so in the industrial neighborhood; It came to me that it could be modified, but that seemed to be wrong. Then I struck on the idea of putting the diner inside of a garage or another building, and that made a strange sense, but still did not go quite far enough. I also did not quite get them going out to this place. I considered the idea of a diner inside the warehouse, but that would only work if Bimble ran it and no one else was there. Not a real diner, just a parked trolley that Bimble kept and used as his commissary. That would not work. I considered, though, that I set up the warehouse as having large industrial bay style doors. Thus, I could have the diner just drive in. This makes a lot of sense for numerous reasons, and makes it difficult for Carter to avoid. It also allows me to make a very straightforward type of diner, but it's normality is part of what makes it so strange. To be honest, I am not certain of the menu entirely yet, but it is a play on that classic style of restaurant.
Okay, it is quite late now, and I need to get some sleep. I have a lot more about the story in my head at the moment, and if I had the energy, I would be working on it directly...
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