This edition of my writing blog profile thing will cover the secrets that I have so far hidden in the story. First of all is the city in which the novel takes place. I've been there but never lived there, only passed through. Just to confirm this is a major US city, and the clues are sparse as of yet but more will come. Next I will say that the year(s) in which the story take place will not be revealed. However, this one should be very easy to figure out based on the novels context alone. Finally: so far there have been two secret characters who are not quite what they seem to be. I plan in the future to have one more secret character in coming chapters, so pay attention and see if you can figure out who is really something out of this world.
This, to me, seems like the perfect time to discuss Arthur. I visited Brian an old college friend of mine over last weekend, and we had a little writing workshop together with Scott, another long time college chum. Many debates were had, stories were exposed and flushed, and we watched all of Neon Genesis Evangelion. One of the big discussions I had was about Arthur. You see Brian is a licensed councilor, so in his profession he has come across many individuals who suffer from Bipolar and manic depressive disorders. I wanted his professional opinion on just how someone with a Bipolar spectrum disorder would act and even think in order to get a bead on where I am with Arthur as a character. It was good to talk with him, and we talked at length as how I was to present someone with this disorder.
You see I don't think I did enough research into Manic depression ahead of this story, I bought a text on it, but lost the text when I was roughly a quarter of the way through. Beginning The Three Weasels I tried to read into depressing poetry and essays but nothing I did really put me in touch with the character. After I basically abandoned the scientific approach I just went with how I emotionally feel connected to Arthur.
Arthur's got it all. Money, looks, prestige, freedom, talent, power, lovers, intelligence, nothing is out of Arthurs grasp except his own emotions. What I ultimately decided to go with may not be close to realistic clinical manic depression or bipolar disorder, but I just wanted a character that was feeling the 'wrong things.' I think of it like George Bailey in "It's a wonderful life." What I noticed about that movie is that whatever people in town are feeling, George feels the opposite. When the townspeople are scared, he's calm, when they are fighting the war, he's keeping the peace, when everyone else is celebrating Christmas, he's contemplating suicide. That's the kind of effect I wanted to bring forth. For the sake of narrative license I called him Manic Depressive, just for the freedom for me to give him any emotion any time I want.
I don't want to downplay or make light of anyone suffering from Bipolar or manic depression. I don't understand the depth of what you are going through, and I never really can. What I wanted with Arthur was emotional freedom found in emotional chaos. I do not feel my representation is above criticism, either. If anyone out there would like to send me your thoughts on Bipolar disorder and the way I am representing it please contact me. (I'm looking at you Brian, Hijo) I'd love for anyone struggling with Manic depression send me your thoughts, send me your stories. I just want to make Arthur really come alive to the reader on a very emotional level.
On one final note, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my little brother Dan, who's turned 28. Congratulations, man. Hope to see you very soon. Much love.
Since I wrote about Sylvia in the last entry, today I'll cover Dave. Dave is based on a conflict of ideas. Really all the characters are, but Dave especially. In writing for Dave I try to tap into what is, in essence, religious hypocrisy. Now Dave is Catholic, but it is not neccisarily hypocricy directed to Catholics alone. All religions, I feel, are laced with hypocracy. When you declare your works, whatever they may be, to being done in the name of God, well, all you really are is self righteous. I wanted to paint that self rightousness in Dave without being too heavy-handed against religion as an institution. Religion to Dave is very important, and very central to his life in two ways. Firstly he needs a way to convince himself that everything that has happened to him has happened for a reason, and second he needs a way to justify his life of lies and thievery by convincing himself to be part of the greater good. I feel that such a dualistic concept in the world today has led to discrimination, hatred and division. Without going that heavy-handed I wanted to portray religious concepts serving as a front to obfuscate the nature of pervasive selfishness. I don't want this to come off as a PSA, and I do honestly feel that while religion has many self-serving and even dangerous aspects I cannot argue against man's need for meaning and the ultimate, even divine purpose for all that we see, and all that we are.
Sylvia is an interesting character for me to write. I've based her off of several girls I have known throughout my life. I wanted her to be a step away from any concept of a heroine. I also wanted her behavior to be very girlish, with the glaring difference of her own voyeurism. My goal in creating the character is a believable girl who does something very out of character for girls, namely going through great pains to see naked guys. I've never seen great evidence that the female libido is that aroused by visual stimulation, as much as it is by emotional and tactile stimulation. By putting her as a voyeur who is isolated from doing anything but gawking at naked guys I think I did the duty of distancing her from a perceived feminine passive sexuality into a more masculine and active one. Among the criticisms I have received one of the most consistent has been from Sylvia's narration. Just writing the character of a teenage girl gives some readers the idea that I can only write my impression of a teenage girl, while others think I've gone too far in making her the realistically bubbly teen. Sylvia has always been and will always be a challenge for me to write, but I don't feel any unnatural or forced characterization when writing her. She's just like all those girls I've known when I was in High school and college. She's just that girl.
Since I did not release a chapter for the month of March, I suppose I should recognize that my biggest fault in writing this online novel is that I don't write it fast enough. This is a fault of my own character. I get sidetracked by things and put them down for way too long and come back to them only after they bothered me for being left undone long enough. Of all the things I feel guilty about over my creative process I feel most guilty about that. I want to be more task oriented, and be more consistent and devoted to writing the novel, but I just end up doing other things with my time, with the writing always bugging me in the back of my mind.
Here's how I see it really. A number of writers, and especially lyricists have this obsession about their material that they will walk around with a notebook and write down any idea that just pops in their head at the moments notice. They want to have this notebook so that they don't lose any ideas that might be breakthroughs. They'll come to the written notebook later to incorporate it into their work. My philosophy is the exact opposite. I don't jot down every idea that comes to my head I try to GET RID of as many of them as I can. Forget the instantaneous inspiration. Try to. Get those thoughts out of your head. What I want to write is what I can't get rid of. The ideas that won't go away, the thoughts that even after I've tried to divert myself away from them, they still hang about demanding to come out in writing. Sometimes it takes a bit for the force of (Not the moment of) inspiration to come out and force me to write.
Well, Last Day of February and I can't wait for srping to get underway.
I want to talk quickly about how I write the story. What are the "Books" that I have listed on the front page? Those are actual books. I have been buying composition notebooks for a long while now, and I hand-write every chapter as a first draft. This makes writing quick and easy, and I can do it any time I feel is right. What it also means is that by the time I've done the whole story I will have written it twice. I'm basically using that as my drafting technique. Ideas that I had that were great when I just scribbled them down need a little refinement before I'm willing to type them up. When the rough scribbled draft goes into the "Hard" Internet draft, I'm not just coming up with things off the top of my head, I'm trying to get a good balance of what feels good to read and what feels good to write. Incidentally, I just completed work in book 5, so tomorrow I have to go out an pick up another one for book 6. By the time I'm done with this it might end up looking like John Doe's book collection from the movie Se7en.
Yeah. That's little creepy, I know. Sue me.OK, a new chapter uploaded to The Three Weasels, and today I added this new blog feature. I'll try to give updates to readers as I go, answer any mails that come my way, just generally be more active towards readers. If you can see this right now, that means you. I don't have a topic for it today, but rest assured by my next update I should have some insight into what the hell I'm writing. Until then, enjoy.