Chapter 18 stumbles along

I’m making satisfactory progress on Chapter Eighteen of The Sleep of Reason. I’ve managed to add another 800 words since my return from New York, which may seem like a pittance, but I don’t mind going slowly since the protagonist is about to get a big revelation, and I want his thoughts to be in the right place when that happens. (Also, that New York trip really disrupted my writing routine.)

Many of the characters that made one-time appearances in earlier chapters are called into play in this chapter. They don’t make another appearance, but they are referenced in turn, and their fates are discussed by the protagonist and another character. What those fates are give the protagonist the final realization of his predicament, something he had inklings of before but that he pushed out of his mind. Great power can exalt or crush, and he is about to see just which one is in store for him. He won’t yet know his reaction to it, but he will be set down the road to achieving it.

The resolution is going to be tough writing. I’m going to have to talk out of two sides of my mouth, as the expression goes. I’m going to have to write as though I am talking about one thing but actually be talking about something different. The reader won’t realize this (except for the truly clever reader — like you it so happens!) and the vagueness of my references will, I hope, be supplemented by what the reader thinks is going on. Oh boy, the writing work is either going to exalt me or crush me.

Pencil work

I write on my lovely MacBook laptop computer. The words flow from my fingertips through the keyboard and onto the screen swiftly and easily (when the words come, that is). It’s hard enough to remember the days when an electric typewriter was an innovation, and I cannot imagine how great epics were written in the days of quill pens. Yes, I love my computer.

But there is something intangibly nice about writing by hand. When I am made king, all legal documents will have to be signed in blue ink (actually any color but black) so that it will be evident that the signature is an original and not a photocopy. But aside from that, people will be permitted to write with black ink pens if they wish (but why would anyone wish that?).

When I am writing by hand, especially in my spiral-bound journals but also when I’m making feverish notes for my creative work, I like to write with a mechanical pencil. I’ve had many over the years, and they are always trusty gifts to give me when the holidays come around. I like the feel of the pencil in my hand. I like the fine handwriting I can produce with a lead that always stays sharp. I like the use of the muscles in my hand to guide the pencil across the paper.

I don’t suppose I’ll ever attempt to write any long work with a pencil and paper, but if I ever do, I suspect I will enjoy the process.

How to Become a Superhero

One of the unexpected discoveries (and aren’t those the best kind?) I made while in New York was a small storefront down the block from my daughter’s apartment called the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company. This store sells all of the equipment needed to conduct most superhero activities.

At this store (and through mail order) you can get your capes, costumes (including a sleek, Italian-cut invisibility suit), weaponry (particle guns, thunder inducers, photon shooters, deflector bracelets, others), secret identities, and all of the gear you might need for your lair (including a $9,000,000 mansion and a $12,000,000 matter transformer). If you intend to clone a sidekick, you can get intelligence and omnipotence by the gallon. You can buy the speed of light by the ounce, force field shampoo, a formula for growing gills, and even a map of the Negative Zone (because someone is going to try to trap you there eventually).

But while this store really does sell all of these products and more, it is actually a front. In the back room is where you will find the real super power they deal in.

Literacy!

The store hosts, and supports with its proceeds, an after-school tutoring program called 826NYC. This program is designed to encourage children aged 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills. They use one-on-one mentoring to help children learn how to write and express themselves. They also offer homework help, provide in-school programs, and welcome school field trips at their site. They have even published anthologies of some of the fiction their students have written.

826NYC is part of a national organization of writing workshops designed to encourage young people. Several other chapters also have front organizations. I wish I had encountered a secret organization like this when I was a young superhero wannabe. They do accept donations, however, and it might just be the best way to become a superhero for real.

Chapter 18 progresses

What a trudge it has been returning to the business of writing this latest chapter of The Sleep of Reason, having spent a week away, frolicking in New York. I know what Chapter 18 must do; I know the plot points it must address. The hard part is putting one word in front of another (just as with all of the walking I did in New York I eventually found it hard to put one foot in front of the other). But I managed to line up nearly a thousand more words to the 1,100 I’d already written more than a week before, and I fully expect the rest of the chapter, with a few interesting revelations about characters come and gone in the tale, to round out the chapter to a respectable size.

My “research” work in New York was beneficial, though it was mostly just for texture. I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art as I intended and soaked up the atmosphere there. I did not make it to Battery Park as I had hoped, but I think I could move the two scenes I’d set there in the novel to Columbus Circle, which I did visit, if I feel the need.

Two other texture items that I can add easily to the story in the great rewrite are pigeons and graffiti, both of which are ubiquitious in that great city. Any scenes set there would be remiss without at least a passing reference to them.

So I hope to get myself back on track with the writing of this story. As I envision it all, I think I can get the telling completed with just two more chapters though I won’t hold myself to that should it evolve differently.

New York dispatch

Sorry I haven’t posted lately. My New York visit is consuming most of my time and all of my energy. I’ve only been able to make scattered notes; there’s no chance of actual writing for the duration. I should get back to my regular grumpy posts again soon.

A research trip

Really.

I’ll be on a plane winging my way from the middle of the U.S. to New York City today for a week’s stay. Ostensibly it’s to see my daughter and son-in-law (and grandpuppy) plus all of the sights, but really it’s for research purposes. Really.

My novel, The Sleep of Reason, takes place in New York. Much of it happens upstate on the private estate of a very wealthy man, but some key scenes happen in Manhattan. I’ve written most of those scenes from memory, having visited Manhattan several times in years past. A particularly fun chapter occurs within the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so of course I’m eager to visit that wonderful institution as soon as I can to soak up more impressions and more or less firm up the writing. I also have a few Manhattan street scenes, and if I can grab a bit of authentic texture to enhance those, that will be fine too. If we get the chance, I hope we can get to Battery Park at the southern tip of the island since I have two scenes there. All legitimate research, mind you.

When I started writing the novel, I didn’t have this trip planned. In fact, at the time (and through much of the writing of the novel), my daughter and son-in-law (and grandpuppy) lived on the other side of the country, not far from the Pacific Ocean. We were scheduled to travel there for the visit about now, and while that would have been pleasant, I never intended to set my novel in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Then my son-in-law took a wonderful new job that called for them to move across the nation. We were able to transfer our airline tickets. And serendipity arrived.

Perhaps I’ll be able to make some interesting posts about my adventures in New York, but I don’t think I’m going to get much fiction writing done for the next week.

Almost overlooked (again)

I’m not sure if I mentioned earlier that I sent another of my short stories out to a magazine I found through Duotrope’s Digest at the beginning of this month. The response time was not indicated, so, of course, I checked my email every single day for the inevitable acceptance letter (full of praise).

And nothing came. Still, I kept checking my email for any news. Granted, two weeks is hardly sufficient time for an editor to respond on an unsolicited submission, but I still remember the surge I felt when a different editor accepted one of my stories the very same day I submitted it, so I kept checking.

Then I remembered a little incident I had maybe a year ago when I sent a query letter to an agent who was known for responding quickly. She hadn’t in my case, but there was something familiar about the two incidents. And it finally dawned on me. Both sites used electronic submission forms rather than email.

Then I had the good sense to check my email spam bucket. Sometimes the responses coming from these systems aren’t recognized as friendly by my email system. Just as with the agent before, the response from the magazine regarding my short story had been shunted to the spam bucket.

It wasn’t an acceptance letter (yet), but it was an acknowledgement of receipt. (I entered that in my submission tracker page at Duotrope’s Digest, which I’m coming to like more each time I use it.) So maybe I’ll remember to look at my spam bucket more often. Sometimes there are pleasant surprises there.

(If you go to the link for my older short story above, you need to know that my hometown, Kansas City, has a reputation for not appreciating its history and art. It was with that in mind that I wrote the story.)

Going from 1st to 3rd person narration

I’m not sure how I’m going to do this, mechanically I mean. I’ll have the whole of The Sleep of Reason written in first-person narration, and I’ll want to rewrite it in third person. So how will I do that?

Will I read one paragraph and write the revised paragraph immediately below it on the screen?

Should I print each chapter (what a waste of paper!) and have it at hand as I create new files in the computer?

Should I have the first-person draft show on one screen while I write the new one on another? (This is possible since my old, glacially slow laptop could sit side-by-side with my newer one — now two years old — and justify its existence with such low-demand work.)

I suppose I’ll work out a solution, but right now it all seems clumsy. Any suggestions?

Chapter 18 emerges

After much too long away, I have resumed work on The Sleep of Reason, making a fine start on Chapter 18. It is an aftermath chapter, the (false) climax of the story having come in Chapter 17. So I’m figuratively cleaning up the details (just as my protagonist is literally doing the same) and setting the stage for the few chapters of the story remaining.

I began the chapter with a little creative flourish. It’s in keeping with the protagonist’s state of mind, and I did do some similar work in earlier chapters, but it is a tiny bit out of tone with the story as it has been narrated thus far. I think it fits though, and I’m going to go with it for now. (It is also similar to how I intend to write the first chapter of my next novel, so I’m happy for the chance to give it a try.)

I’ve managed to write 1,100 words, and it sets the chapter into motion while fully closing the events of the preceding chapter (though the protagonist is never freed of them). I also managed to bring in a very suitable reference to an earlier character who had played his part and departed the tale many chapters ago. I like this kind of efficient use of such things, giving them more purpose and meaning than merely their initial function. I also think it lends a sort of comprehensive coherence to my “grand vision” so maybe I’ll look like I knew what I was doing all along. Now I must set the stage for the true climax of the story as well as do the delicate work of helping the protagonist rationalize and live with his actions.

I also learned this week that the clever and odd “event” I contrived for the story is actually not so original. Such a thing has happened through the ages, and there is a sort of festival for it each summer in some far-off place with the unlikely name of California. At first I feared that this would dilute the “creepiness” of my story, but I think I found a way use it to my advantage, allowing mine to be less “vulgar” and “pedestrian” than that of the hoi polloi. I wish I could be less cryptic about this, but I just don’t feel I can.

Blah, blah, blah, though. I really need to get the first draft finished. My reflections are all well and good, but there’s work to be done!

More Meta Musing

Okay, I’ve finally finished plowing through my old posts to add tags and categories so that your edification via my gracious thoughts can be more systematic.

Boy do I have a lot of strong opinions about stuff. I’d forgotten that I’d made many of my points, and while I still agree with them, I don’t think they burn as strongly in my soul as they did when I posted them.

My forage through my old posts also allowed me to fix quite a few eggregious spelling errors. Why didn’t any of you tell me about these?

As for writing, the stars have not been aligned in my favor of late. I hope to get back to my routine soon though. Oddly, I’ve discovered that I must have a writing routine to be productive.