TGIF!

Today was less productive than the others, but that happens too.

I got to thinking about all my “great ideas” last night, then – as anyone who has written anything tends to do – I ripped them apart. (Every writer is something of a masochist at heart - and a sadist, I suppose.)

There will be a ‘storyteller’ character. That part of the structure idea works – and it may be the only way to do this thing. However, I’m now not convinced that it should be Cain and/or Macy. 

The reason the “stage manager” works in Our Town is because he is detached from the people. I’m not sure it’s not some kind of trickery to use characters in the play as that kind of a voice. You want to manipulate the story for maximum effect, but you never want to manipulate the audience.  People resent that – well, at least the people that I want to love this thing do.  

One of the things about the novel that makes me proud, is that I never milked a moment. My agent called it "wonderfully unsentimental writing"– which, is not my particular style (I love me some melodrama) – but I think that lack of manipulation allows the reader to feel the force themselves, without me intruding on it.

Anyway, now I’m writer-rambling…

There will be more thought and next week I’ll make a few more outlines… There’s an answer out there, I just have to stumble across it.

Like anything traumatic, the unraveling of what, at first, seemed like a great idea calls for some time to recuperate. So, today I just read.  Mainly August: Osage County. How’s that for uplifting?  : ) (I’ll have to check out the movie again now that I’ve seen it in a better light.) (Great stuff –Dark as hell – but great.)

Still, I count the day as a good one.

I let myself get a little derailed by an unexpected lunch invitation. I typically can NEVER have lunch with people, so now I know that spur of the moment lunch dates provide me too much opportunity to blow off my schedule. Duly noted. But it was a lovely lunch, all the same.

The song for today made it just under the wire… Missionary Man by Annie Lennox.

The plan is Friday off – I’ve done pretty darn good this week.  (Lots of reading tomorrow and over the weekend, but no office hours!) Go have some fun!