Another great night for writing. Piece by piece this project is beginning to take shape.
I am constantly reminded of Kate Braverman's beautiful quote about the craft of writing: "You build a novel the same way you do a pyramid. One word, one stone at a time, underneath a full moon when the fingers bleed." How much sketching went into the pyramids before they found a design they could start to work with? How many formal plans? How many calculations? I am beginning to see that unlike some writers I cannot simply sit down and write one line at a time from beginning to end. I am beginning to see (finally...after how long?) that it is truly an iterative process for me.
First comes long conversations with K about the idea, then brief half page sketches, snatches of dialogue, a striking description that captures a mood or a moment in time. After that comes a full length synopsis--even if it is raw--just to get the broad strokes of the idea down on paper and out of my head. The phase I'm on now is a slow and methodical process of laying the actual groundwork of who does what and when. I am discovering now what actually works and what doesn't. The characters--and even the story itself--are beginning to assert their own influence over the story. Ideas for the prologue that I thought were great at first have been tossed aside in favour of new ones that seem to come more from Charlotte and her world than from me. This entire process is an unfolding, the way a flower bud cracks then slowly begins to unfurl itself to the sun petal by petal. Everything the blossom is was in that tight little bud. Everything the flower is was contained in its seed--the roots, the stem, the leaves and the petals. Sunder is creating itself in collaboration with me.
It's been a productive night and it's time to go home now. Another long day ahead of me at the office then another evening here to cut more stone.
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