3.30.2007

literary landmark

okay, so recently i jumped back into the writing gig. and aside from a little snag --y'know, not really having 'that writing feeling'-- things are going pretty well. there's a scene in the heartbreaking work of staggering genius that apparently needs a lot of work. it's a necessary scene for more than one reason, but when the writer of said scene is actually bored out of her mind writing it, then there's a problem.

i mean, what reader is gonna be interested in a scene that the freakin' writer was bored with? c'mon...

anyway, so...landmark!

okay, back in the blueprinting stages of construction, i was developing characters, discovering their life stories, what made them tick, what their motivations and secrets and flaws and abilities were. this was actually kind of fun, figuring out who these people were and how they were all affecting one another, and why it was these particular people who were now shaping the world. why now? why these people?

discovering this was a wonderful and thrilling, heady experience. they didn't reveal everything to me all at once, and most of the time they were deceiving me with one thing while concealing something else that was closer to the truth...and they didn't even know they were doing it. they'd lied to themselves so well, they believed something else for truth. others just plain didn't want me to know what they were doing, furtive and plotting and ambitious, or protective and noble and yet guarding their secrets no less fiercely.

i love writing. have i mentioned how much i love writing?

so, there is this one character, and he was so furtive he didn't even want me to know his name. for the longest time he kept me in the dark, well after i'd already had most everyone else's stories pretty much sorted out. so i was left with no choice but to refer to him as "the toad-sucking boot licker" because, well, that's what he is for most of the story. well, not most of it, but for long enough that you really, really just despise him. or, at least, i hope that's the effect he'll have on my readers.

naturally, i couldn't let this go on forever, but it went on for a good four months or so. he was the toad-sucking boot licker. eventually i got his name out of him. well, one of them.... actually, come to think of it, i still don't know his real name...

oh, *shakes a finger* that's good. he's good, i tell you.

so, being in the 1st draft stage of construction, i've finally gotten to the scene where my heroine calls him "toad-sucking boot licker" for the first time and it's...well...it's just magic, i tell you. magic! i feel i should be breaking out champagne or something, except i hate champagne. maybe sushi.

of course, in writing this scene, a few snags have come up that i never foresaw in the flesh-out stage but i suppose i should have. i mean, two people can't have a murder and a noisy bowfight in the middle of a plaza at dawn and not have the city guard come and crash the party, right? i just...didn't see the fight getting so noisy and emotional, y'know?

gods above, have i mentioned how much i just fucking love writing?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

omg, You rock!
You're hilarious and I LOVE your blog!
I'll be back.

Anonymous said...

that's why you're so fucking good at it...

~greggo