Feb 08, 2007 23:38
Yeah... I wasn't exactly leaping out of my bath shouting things in ancient greek, but I did have a brief moment of yay! My brain still works! And I was leaping around at the time. Slightly. Taking the first step with these things is always the most important thing. Being able to admit to a problem in the first place is the best way to acknowledge it, and to begin to deal with it. I realise this now.
So...
I am a frustrated novelist. I have been trying (with ever-more limited success) to write a book. There. I've said it. If I can admit it here, I can admit it to myself, deal with it, come to terms with it, seek help. Whatever bakes the biscuits, really. I've been working on something kinda heavily for the last year or so. Probably nearer five years, to be honest. I've only just realised something.
I always wanted to have two perspectives in the novel - one first person and one third person. I just couldn't quite figure out why. Nor could I figure out a way to justify having both positions, and still have them form a coherent narrative. And that's where the lightbulb comes in. I just realised - it's okay to have both if they're two different perspectives from the same person. The third person is the inner voice, the true identity, the things unsaid, or unsayable. An onlooker consciousness - aware and analytical, conscious and objective. The first person is the limited view, the person that's subject to everyone else's expectations. The subject consciousness - repressed and limited, constrained and enclosed. Only by seeking resolution between the two can my main character achieve... something. Involving a choice. And biscuits. And possibly some kind of magic ring. Or a lightsaber... Hmmm...
Oh, yeah, and there was something about how dialogue is like juggling? With fruit? And... some kind of jam? Did I fall asleep without noticing, again?
Bugger. Got distracted, and now the brain's switched off again. Oh well, guess that's that for another year. *sigh*
_
writing,
novel