John Steinbeck did this thing when he was writing East of Eden: each day, before he began work on the story, he wrote a letter to his editor, Pascal Covici. It was a sort of a warm up, a stretching of the mind-muscles, and if the end result is anything to go by, it was an incredibly good idea. I don't know anyone with a name as cool as Pascal Covici, but I do have a blog now, so I figured, why not put it to good use?
I've been writing this so-called novel for too long now, and today I'm about to set off on another unexpected tangent. It may result in this three-times-a-week slog becoming even more grueling, or it might end up making the story into exactly what I've been struggling to make it since I first had the idea: finished.
The idea I had last night is a bold one - compressing three semi-realized characters into one hyper-real super-character, the likes of which hasn't been seen in literature since Theodore Geisel introduced us to this fine fellow. Well, maybe not quite that bold. Still, it's big enough for me to be afraid of it. And that's always a good sign, right? But the problem is that it requires rewriting. And rewriting and rewriting. In fact, if I follow through with this idea, it will be my 3rd time drastically rewriting the first 50 pages of Part II. If it comes to a 4th time, I think I might cry.
But here I am, enamored of the idea. What's a boy to do but follow it down a brambly path? And now it's getting late. I need to start working for real. Today an outline to see how crazy my plan might be. Tomorrow? Self-destruct mode begins anew.
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