Thursday, April 12, 2012

April 12 - Lost momentum, M.C. Escher, and self-analysis

This is the point at which the writing has actually gotten somewhat slightly hard. Which is absurd if you consider that it's only been, what, six days. Then again, if you think that it's been 8,000 words (which isn't a whole lot, but...you know, it's still words), then that makes some more sense.
I told myself I didn't need to know where the story was going, entirely. I thought that the concept was intriguing enough to carry itself. I should never fall into that trap again. I know I will. It's inevitable, like death, taxes, having your heart broken (unless, like me, you don't go in for love), and bad cake. (Seriously, cake can be really good, but it can be really bad.)

Yesterday, I did not want to write my 1,000 words. But I did. And I'm at 8,000 words now instead of 7,000. It's been interesting; I've been sick all this week and I haven't gone to school at all except for yesterday. Which I went to solely on account of my novel-writing class told by the magnificent Mr. Powers (yes, Tim Powers of On Stranger Tides fame). Except he wasn't there. There was a substitute - Ms. Freshwater of...not-really-anything fame, I don't think. She's a nice teacher and all, but she's not Mr. Powers. But I did get my 1,000 words written in that class. Or after it. Well, I did some writing during that time, which is what matters. I think.

I wasn't incredibly happy with what I wrote. Mostly it was just sending Chris (my narrator, if I haven't already established that - I can't remember) and Tackett (Chris's otherself) into an M.C. Escher meets Alice in Wonderland-style house. It didn't really serve any purpose (I think a lot of scenes of this book aren't going to serve any purpose beyond being cool and dream-like and psychological). But it did establish what my characters are dealing with.

There seems to be this running theme of M.C. Escher-like stuff. One of the characters (Keith, the insane painter) lives in an apartment that "make[s] one think it was the result of M.C. Escher experimenting with three-dimensional architecture". I was about to write "(Conlee [page number])" after that, like how you do for quotes when you're writing MLA-format essays. I've been working on my Dracula essay too long. But hey, I'm proud of it.

I digress. The Escher thing. Keith also paints in an Escher-like style (or he's experimenting with it; he gets more into it as the story goes on). I think it's because Escher's stuff looks like either reality trying to manifest itself in an impossible world or impossibility trying to manifest itself in a realistic world. (This is where I point you to TVTropes and their article on "Alien Geometries".) Also, there seems to be this thing with Alice in Wonderland, too. What with the first dream world being described as like falling through a rabbit hole, and Frell's Cheshire Cat smile (he's Keith's otherself), or even this thing for checkerboard (Tackett's got a checkerboard tie and the Escher house has a checkered floor). Someone entering a world of their own invention that reflects itself in their dreams. That makes perfect sense, actually. I love analyzing my work like I didn't write it.

And this is the part where I legitimately get onto my work. Yes, it is.


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