...but I did get somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 words into the novel yesterday (I'm not 100% sure of the word count, as I wasn't following it religiously -- I had the feeling going into it that the word count would be light, so I didn't want to really know just how light. Boy, was I surprised!)
AND almost 4,000 of those words came spilling out in one sitting that just kind of spiralled out of control.
Clearly I've had some pent up narrative waiting to get vomited out on the page.
On top of everything else, an anecdote I heard at work today -- about a street in Kelowna that, apparently, has no service of any kind, be it electrical, gas, cable, or anything else, because it's essentially a have for crackhouses and drug dealers -- is bouncing around in my head as an idea for later in the novel.
My first thought was that the idea of a street where no one goes, that the government pretends doesn't exist, might make an interesting location for another story. But then, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like this could be better used in this novel. Not only a location forgotten and ignored by the government and by the utilities companies, but a location forgotten by God himself. I've been looking for a spot where the final "showdown" between Jeremy and the cult leader would take place, and I was already thinking of a location like this -- someplace derelict and worn down -- but this idea of a forgotten, ignored neighbourhood takes the original idea one step further.
It does feel a little bit too close to the notion of "Undertown" that I had in the "Stealing Time" novel from a few years back, but I don't think there's much of a chance of that novel ever getting finished, and if it's just going to sit around and collect dust anyway, I might as well rip something off from it.
I still need to give it a bit more thought, particularly in the area of where I'm intending to introduce the idea of this location. My first thought was that I needed to introduce it towards the beginning of teh novel, to have it in people's minds already for the climax, but I've begun to think that there might be a good point in the next chapter or two for that introduction -- might not be at the beginning, but it's early enough from the climax that it'll still get the job done.
As always -- and as is always surprising -- the further into the book I get, the more everything starts to coalesce. All the varying, disconnected ideas begin to pull together into a single, unifying thread.
God, I love it when that happens.
2 comments:
You decided to use the name Jeremy, eh? It's a fabulous name.
It's a good name, yes, and it did seem to mesh well with the character. And I haven't used that name on a character in recent memory, so it's safe from being reused for no terribly good reason.
Have I mentioned anywhere yet the cult leader is named "Dorian"? I think I keep referring to him as just "the cult leader" and not by name, and it's probably because I'm not completely sold on the name yet. I don't know why it came to me, but it did, so I suppose I should follow my gut and use it. It seems a sort-of unlikely name for a cult leader, which gives it a certain appeal to me.
Post a Comment