We just got back from a late dinner. Mr S-P was driving most of the day, so I was the one to ferry us to a chain steak restaurant and back. He was definitely too tired to drive, but it probably wasn't a good idea for me to be steering a motor vehicle in my distracted state. Almost immediately upon getting behind the wheel, my mind wandered, and I started thinking about the story I'm working on, basically the entire way there. We were seated and the first thing I did was to grab a notepad and pen from my purse (#1 benefit from hanging out with title agents and bankers -- tons of notepads and pens as freebies, and I always have some nearby). I ate my entire meal with both a fork and pen in my left hand. I was still composing in my head the whole way back, too. It was worth it for the breakthrough, though. I have finally identified the conflict of my second act.
I'm trying a different tactic on this story, wanting to have a giant outline before I write any of the actual prose. Normally I attempt to write longhand, chronologically, from page one. It never works in long form for me. Once I get a dozen pages out, I spend all of my time re-reading, editing, honing. I think the farthest I ever got doing it that way was about 70 pages into a story. That was at least 20 years ago, maybe 25. This time I'm forcing myself to wait. I'm making dozens of sticky notes. I bought a new dry-erase board. I'm going to plot out every scene, and I'm going to move them around until I feel confident it's right. I want this to work. I'm tired of losing steam three or four chapters into a story. I've been doing it all of my life, and I want so desperately to kill this demon, the most evil and pernicious one I've ever faced. I want to finish something more than a short story.
I am a bit conflicted about the villain I created over dinner tonight. I can clearly see he was based on one of my high school teachers, one who hated me every bit as much as I hated him. The real guy is long dead. What makes this fictional character bad is what I heard as a rumor about the teacher who made me so unhappy as a teenager. I won't use his real name, but I'm so tempted to use some real events, maybe just as background noise. Will people I went to school with read this story and recognize who the villain is modeled on? Will those who knew how bad the real guy was actually mind? Moreover, will I actually mind?
Teacher 'A' or Teacher 'B' ??? That is the question.
ReplyDeleteWell, as we discussed, it was Teacher "M". And I don't know that he deserved to have all of his secrets kept, this long after he left this earth.
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