The Guy on the PBS Show
November 6, 2000
7:32 a.m.
We went to Indianapolis Saturday. They have big bookstores in Indianapolis. The idea was to spend an hour or so looking for books, then head toward home and buy some additional bookshelves to put them all in. We got to Borders about 1:00. We browsed a few outside shelves, then split up--Lisa heading left, Brigid straight down the center toward the Young Adult section, me to the right. Three-and-a-half hours later, we decided to leave. We weren't really done, I don't think, so much as we were embarrassed to have overstayed our plan. [grin]. I came away with a book on scientific discoveries of the last century, the Shakespeare tragedies, and something on John von Neumann and game theory. Sunday we got the bookshelves. I put them together that night. The basement is in semi-shambles only barely discernable from its usual state of shambles.   In between all this, I finished the first draft of "Searching for Ghandi." It's a bit slight at the end, but pretty close to okay. This morning I started general surgery--meaning I've begun to look at the story from a structured point of view, and fix things that don't make sense or add to the story that I've ended up with. This is a story that didn't start with a plan, so a lot of it is "scattered." It's about 9,000 words--don't know why, but I'm fairly routinely into the novelette range these days. It seems as if I can't keep a story down at 5,000 words to save my life. Having gotten about halfway through the second pass, I realize the biggest problem the draft has is that I've still only gotten partially into the secondary character. I need to give her more rein. I think how well I do at this will determine the success of the story as a whole. So that's what I'm working on. I'm trying to see the world from her eyes. It's not hard, really--just takes a little concentration. I know people who don't like to rewrite. But I find it fun. The cards are all pretty much on the table. You can add a dash here, a pinch there. It's like watching the guy in the PBS "How to Paint" shows, you know? I always think the painting is done before he does, but he keeps going, keeps adding a bit of pine green here, a tree there. He chops off an island and next thing you know there's a schooner in the bay. All the while the guy is talking and saying how great this new bit looks, and I'm thinking "But it was done an hour ago," and realizing that I was wrong because now that the schooner is there, I can tell exactly why those people he's got shaded in are on the dock. When I'm rewriting, I feel like that guy. I cooked on the grill last night. It was chilly, but not cold. There were no clouds. The stars came out one-by-one. Glorious. Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
|
How 'bout them Cards! |
BACK TO 
|