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May 05, 2004
contemplation
Here at the halfway point, I have to pause and consider my next plan of attack.
I know I have to write backfill and introduce a third perspective (Erim's). This will turn him into a more significant presence, which may be necessary as he is the insider/outsider who will make fleshing out the world more...natural.
Up to this point Erim's just been a tagalong and relatively pointless. In my head he's a high school quarterback with enough brains to know he's in a tricky situation, but he's not much more than that. I have to develop on that, or eliminate the character altogether.
I have considered doing something insane and starting Part II from the beginning of Part I -- but I think that would just drive people nuts, and I don't think there's enough differentiation and momentum in Erim's story to do that. So, that probably won't happen. But I did think about it....
...and in the future I may want to write a story in that vein. It's not an original idea, but there is a certain appeal and trickiness to it that I would enjoy working with. The problem is that -- for me -- it needs to be something I'm aware of from the start of the novel, and not something I do midstream. The flow of this story is that each paragraph follows the previous chronologically.
It's very straightforward, but I think it works (in this case).
So, that's where my brain is at. Sorry for the wall o' text. I'm drawing up battle plans, and it always feels good to spill them out somewhere.
Oh, and I'm going to Spain in July.
Posted by sdshaver at May 5, 2004 02:15 PM