Narrative on this post (007)
It has been said that the easiest way to keep going when writing a literary work is to kill someone. Especially if it's fiction, a main character, is plot-appropriate, and a complete surprise. It is used in situation comedies rarely but regularly, almost like clock-work in daytime drama, and has the potential to either wreck or powerfully enhance a story - if used properly. I used a death earlier in this work to add relevant depth to Jane (if you ignore the fact that I hadn't established any kind of relevance for Emily and implied a familiarity with Emily that wasn't yet warranted) as well as offering a reason why they might be reasonable estranged. Death is a powerful and simple way to break out a new plot path, brutally sever ties between friends or quickly heal wounds between enemies, or establish what the exact paradigm of the people involved in the death. How we react to death is a huge part of what makes us human and thus it is simple capital that is available to all writers. The catch is that including it should only be done after establishing value to the person dying (or having the plot such that the value is implied as present and established some time later). Because it is in your work, it will be assumed to have value and thus not supplying it is a waste.
In the same way, romance of any kind can be a powerful source of both inspiration and plot development. It might be the standard romance of boy meets girl (and all its variants), an innocent notion of how the world works (especially when the plot reveals that, in the background, the character's notion of right, wrong, or balance is horribly awry), or the inclusion of a mysterious object. Yesterday's entry included the mystery - but without further development, it's more interesting because it's weird than because it either fits into the story or because it is apparently relevant. Many plot points seem to either be included for no particular reason or because they were useful literary devices.
In the same way, the relationship between Dillon and Marcy was created unintentionally and originated chiefly out of a need to force the story forward. I needed to add some depth to Marcy and, from a synchronicity stand point it needed to be related to the college. Dennington campus is where Emily found Jane and so it would be where Dillon found Marcy. I liked adding to the development of their story the fact that Dillon's perspective was a bit more masculine and analytical - and I wanted him to be brilliant and stupid in a particular way. He is used to seeing his world with a particular perspective and because he stays in his head so often, it seems as if things happen around him. He is blind to a great deal of his surrounding but is unaware that he is blind ... because they do not always factor into his paradigm, so he doesn't see them. Dillon's perspective on Marcy is chiefly one of hormonal curiosity which he has chosen to define in an intellectual manner. In addition, Dillon’s perspective of Marcy is currently that she was first noticed and noted when he sees her in class. To counterpoint, Marcy saw him much earlier and made herself ... available to be noticed. She knows more about Dillon than Dillon is aware and the result is an interesting non-balanced relationship. I think this is realistic ... normally people don't notice one another at the same time. Sometimes that interest can be established before either of them has any kind of direct interaction and it thus becomes story fodder for that development. As I didn't feel either Dillon or Marcy were intending any kind of malevolence, I had to choose carefully the approach each made toward discovering more about one another. The phrasing was important - it had to feel as if Marcy were inquiring without judgment and Dillon's emotionally awkward advances had to be from a kind of innocence.
In addition, I didn't develop the relationship between Dillon and his old Japanese tutor. I meant to imply that she had a kind of crush on him and that he had done some of his own investigation into who she was and what kind of person she had chosen to become, but that the relationship had never developed. It also had to be facile enough that, when she almost runs him over, he can honestly say he has other plans and she can react without any kind of negative repercussion.
One last note - both of these were a bit more awkward to write than before. I am not running out of ideas or plot points - but I keep feeling like the story is about to get weird and I'm fighting to keep it sane and non-mystical. I don't think any of the characters should have weird powers, crazy technology, or unusual perceptions ... and so I won't let the overtly weird take over the story. But with that kind of limitation, it helps to have another tool. And it is this tool I am going to address. Up to this point I've done no planning. I put "pen to paper" and crafted whatever popped into my head. Sometimes it was poignant, sometimes messy, but mostly it was not fluid.
The second week of NaNoWriMo for me will be one involving planning. I'll include some of my intended plot points in these posts, but I intend to have thought more about what I want to have happened by the middle or end of the second third of the book for the characters. I'm not focusing on a whole book flow ... more an evaluation of what kind of characters they truly are, what kinds of events need to occur to each as individuals and as pairs or groups, and what kind of plot motion needs to be made.
If you've been paying attention, I have just fewer than 5,000 words at this point in seven days ... so nowhere near the ideal of at least 1,667 per day.
The idea is you can see the word-count difference between arbitrary focus-less creativity and intentional guided creativity.
I believe the second will win.
Narrative on this post (007)
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