Here it is, November, and The Evolution of Shadows has been loose in the world - officially - for about 18 days and I’m at the point now where I no longer know what to expect next.
I suppose that’s a good thing. It’s now time to move on to other things, especially since I finally sent the manuscript for my second novel off to my editor, Fred Ramey. My natural inclination is to be critical of myself (and of the mss), but I’m going to refrain because, well, that’s what’s expected of me.
Besides, there is plenty more to do.
1) Get the next issue of The Project for a New Mythology ready. My idea for binding it this time is, well, complicated. That means I’ve got to get a mock-up put together to make sure it’s feasible and can be done quickly with a small staff of volunteers (probably just me). Most of the issue will be essays this time, but I do have some poetry and prose submissions that have trickled in that I may include.
2) Resurrect my third novel that was unfairly abandoned because of a person who shall remain nameless, and the sudden relocation from Boulder to Wichita. This is going to be a task. The project was already about 300 pages - and really, really, complicated. I called it my Kitchen-sink-conspiracy-theory book because it was all about the conspiracy of kitchen sinks . . . ((pause) - See, I’m not funny). Anyway . . . . because there’s so much going on in it, I’ve decided that I’m going to use it as an excuse to try a new writing program. I’ve been scoping them out for years. They all offer outline functions, character tracking and charting functions, whiteboard functions - basically all the stuff I used to keep in an assortment of college ruled composition books (which are often bloody hard to find, by the way). I love Moleskine’s but they’re just too expensive to use for this kind of work - especially with the sloppy way I take notes and jot down ideas. I’m not even sure the program I’ve decided to go with (Copywrite) will actually work completely with the way I write, so I’m augmenting it with a few other things: namely a note organizing program called Notes and another called Personal Brain. And, of course, there’s always MacJournal that works as my catch-all. We’ll see how it goes. The first step is to get the existing 300 pages, plus all my notes into these programs. It doesn’t sound very fun, but the story is so complex and I’ve been away from it for so long, there’s really no choice.
See, short - but big.
Thursday, November 5
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4 Notes to the Editor:
Sounds like a blast. I can't wait to hear how those programs work -- I've never tried to write anything with a plot before!
Am I too late for submission?
Voix - You know, plot happens. Any time you tell a character "No", and they try to figure out how to get what they want anyway - that's plot. Put two characters together who want different things (or can't admit they want the same thing) and let them struggle to reconcile their desires- plot.
Plot can happen in a room where two people are sitting quietly. Are they flirting? Trying to ignore each other? Is one trying to ignore the other while the other flirts? etc.
I think you know all that, but the point is this: Western storytelling is obsessed with the idea of manufactured plot: giant events with huge consequences (this is why suspense and mysteries are always so popular) - and so a number of writers think that because they're stories deal more with character and the character's psychology that they aren't good at writing plots or that they've never written a story with a plot.
that's an illusion. I recommend reading some Japanese literature. Start with some of the early post-war writers - Yukio Mishima, Kenzeburo Oe, writers who were children during the war in fact. But also pick up some Japanese movies by Shohei Imamura like "The Eel" or "Dr. Akagi" or - my favorite - "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge."
They're + their . can't spell this early on a saturday.
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