Warning: Blog Title Has Tenuous Connection to its Content
Now I can't really go in depth about this, because it relates to my work in progress and I don't want to 'spoil' things for the few readers I have. I feel, however, strangely compelled to speak on this matter to some degree, so what follows shall be my veiled and confusing attempt to talk to you about writing a story you don't yet know.
(Sigh)
The last story I completed a draft of for my collection is entitled 'Brilliant Story,' and it is one of the few stories in this collection set in the universe of possible things that you and I inhabit. No magic quarters, flesh-eating monsters, or mind-jumping housecats in 'Brilliant Story,' which is rare for tale by an author like me.
The story I'm working on now started life like that - it is a lot more conceptual than 'Brilliant Story' and sort of more abstract right on the face of it. The direction the story had taken, however, was becoming crippled by its own actuality. I realized that, like Johnny Marinville, I had ignored the spiritual side of reality.
I guess the best way of putting it is 'How many times do I have to fall down this huge pipe before a giant duck jumps out at me?'
If you can understand that question, you understand the situation I found myself in at that point in the story. Looking back, I can't imagine what I thought was going to happen at this part of the story - the strange turn it took seems to be a vital part of its essence at this point.
In any event, I look forward to finishing - hopefully in the future some of you will know what I'm talking about!
I think it is funny how you mentioned a duck jumping out at you. I have my own Ducks (father and son) who jumped into my life...war casualty and broken hearted father who died. Talk about spiritual and such, I was looking for my mom's grave for the first time, and just down the row from where I was walking were a flock of ducks on two graves. As I got there I read the name "Curtis Lamar Duck" on both. Son died in Vietnam, dad died 3 years later of a very literal broken heart. I felt a connection to them, esp the son so I learned quite a bit about him over the course of a few years. My family and I even honored him by sending support to his Battalion, which were then serving in the 1st wave of Iraqi Freedom. Lots of people like to claim that it was coincidence that the ducks were on the Ducks. I like to believe (and have other reasons to do so) that it was more. Sometimes in this quite literal and possible world we live in, the impossible does seem to happen. BTW, I don't subscribe to any religion (nor am I atheist), so this is not just some take on that theme. We live in such a huge universe that it is hard not to believe in the more profound. Atleast to me. So maybe you are striving too hard to keep things in this realm. As Roland of Galead said "...there are other worlds than these".
ReplyDeleteJake said it too... Roland just couldn't stop thinking it because of how haunted he was by the memory of Jake saying it as he slipped... now I'm crying!
ReplyDeleteWhat a tale of the ducks and the Ducks... another phrase from the Dark Tower books comes to mind at this story - 'coincidence has been canceled.'
I believe in profound moments like that - and that's about ALL I believe in, because you CAN believe in it.
Yeah, I guess I always associated the words with Roland. Poor Jake =0)
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