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.
