A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Five-Hundred-And-Forty-Eight

I am working on the new novel and having some fun with it right now, though I do feel that it may be off the trail of where I thought I was aiming, at least to some extent.  At the same time, though, I am glad to find myself having a better time playing in the sandbox of this story.  It has taken me a little while to get to a place where I have been able to dive in this way, but the characters are beginning to take on real personality, and more is starting to happen.  I also realize, as I think on it, that their is a way in which what I am writing now could become an important portion of the story, even if it requires a bit of rethinking in terms of the actual story itself and how things unfold within it.  In the last few days I have been thinking about aspects of this story and what is making it difficult for me to really get fully invested in the story, and I think that a part of it comes down to a certain pessimism inherent to the tale.  As I have discussed, this story revolves around the idea of a sort of miracle weight-loss cure turning out to be something else.  As a person who is overweight, I would like to believe in the possibility of something that could help a person like me to make serious changes to my physicality.  I would like to believe in something that would make it easier to lose weight for the long term.  This has caused me a bit of difficulty in thinking through the story as a result, but I think that I am getting a clearer sense of what I am working towards, and the part of the story I am writing now may not be integral to the plot, but I think it is going to provide a background of sorts.  The character is currently at a weight loss clinic, but it is clear that this is just a prelude to the main action of the story.  While am not certain that many of the characters or events from this early section will be directly relevant to the story as it develops, I believe it is working to provide a connection with and empathy for the overweight people of the stories world, which is important since those will also be the people who this weight loss cure would impact and harm.  I am feeling quite enthused about this book tonight in a way that I haven't felt in some time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Writer's Notebook, Day Two-Hundred-And-Fifty

Each of the three pieces I wrote today was a bit of a struggle to get going, if I am honest.  That happens, as I have mentioned, and my answer is generally to just wait it out, and the results vary.  A lot of the time, if I am really stuck, I might try to force something out, often it winds up being a bit meta, with me writing about being stuck without much in terms of inspiration, and it feels a bit like I am working scales in a way.  All the aesthetic decisions are there, they just don't always have a lot of purpose behind them, and that is fine in that context.  Essentially, I am just forcing myself to do the work, and getting it done, and I am showing myself that I can and will do it even if inspiration never strikes.  This can often take pressure off, and that lack of pressure opens up creative thinking and inspiration. Now, that is a fine thing for me to do, and I am likely to use that approach again many times in the future, but today I felt that I want...
Read more

Le Guin, Steering The Craft, Chapter Five: Adjectives and Adverbs (Exercise Five, Chastity)

A note of apology for my lateness with this.  I had expected to have time earlier in the day, but it was not to be, alas.  Anyhow, I am still a bit nervous about this exercise, though it is clearly of significant import to Le Guin, as she points out that it is the only exercise that she has given to all of her workshops.  That, of course, does not alter my feelings about it, excepting that I am aware of it as something valuable and worth doing, so the fact that it is a bit daunting might well be seen, through that light, as a promise of reward, perhaps.  The more difficult the task, the more one has to gain, at least by some logic... Exercise Five: Chastity Mr. Torino was in charge.  He had his way.  It was the way.  Desktops are clean.  Nothing but work.  No pictures: not your kids; not your girl or wife; not (as Allen recounted) your car.   None of that.  No plants.  No cartoons.  That is for home, this is work....
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-And-Fifty-Nine

I have been thinking about how I can discuss certain aspects of my poetry and the choices I make as a writer.  In particular, I tend to write without as much reliance on sensory details and descriptions, instead choosing more abstract depictions.  This is something that I know many writers would call an odd choice, as specificity seems inherently to demand the application of detail, but I tend to be a bit hesitant about relying on depictions that utilize the senses, as I find that approach somewhat problematic.  For one thing, sensory description is always going to be less than universal, and not only because of the reality that there are individuals who lack one or more sense.  In many ways, for me, the deeper problem is one related to language itself.  Our use of language creates our experiences in a very real way, though I can't necessarily offer a full explanation of what I mean by that right here, but using a word for an object bestows qualities on it....
Read more