{"id":1054,"date":"2021-01-04T13:29:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2021-01-04T13:29:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:29:52","slug":"getting-restarted-plus-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/04\/getting-restarted-plus-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting (re)started, plus music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So we are well away into the New Year, and I have sat down with The Lantern Tower<\/em> again, determined to make the most of my favorite season for writing in. As usual I had bogged down right about the point where I’d be starting to build connective tissue between the first section and the second — fascia rather than plot; I know what happens at the end of Chapter Six, that part’s not a mystery. I’ll go back and fill that in much like I did the last couple chapters of Act One in Ryswyck<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So here I’m starting again at the beginning of the second section, writing scenes I know, planting out scene plugs I’ve got socked away in Google docs (gardening metaphors are rising to mind just now; I’ve been watching a lot of Monty Don specials and really wish I had some unshaded gardening space). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the propagated sceneage, also already there are fascinating decisions to make. Like in what manner I should alternate locations for the action in Bernhelm and at Ryswyck Academy. If this were a film by Greta Gerwig I might dare to interleave by scene or section, without keying first to the objective chronology: but a book is not a film, so if I want a similar effect I will want to use tools of the written art. But which ones? That<\/em> is a fun mystery, running one’s mental fingers over rows of smooth-worn tool handles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too, I have discovered a tension that is the mirror reverse to a tension I had to manage in the first book. In that book, though I consider Speir and Douglas to be co-equal protagonists, there was a point at which the action, the momentum and moral thrust of the story belonged to Douglas. I concerned myself intensely with the art of putting Speir on a sideline without sidelining her. Here, the opposite tension is in effect; and in this case I’m wrangling not only the balance of Speir as emerging primary agent with Douglas as subordinate agent, but also the residual sexism of fearing that as a wrongness. Once I identified the tension, however, I felt a small sense of relief: oh, I see, it isn’t<\/em> wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s the state of things in the word trenches<\/s> greenhouse at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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