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Sep. 13th, 2005 01:08 pmWon't be on much till this evening today. I'm finally buckling down and writing that damn scene. It's going to be painful.
I've been writing this novel on and off for three years. It's a tragedy, so there's alway going to be something poignant about writing it. I may have gotten too involved with the characters.
Three children, psychically gifted, grow up together. One girl, one fairly stable and well-adjusted and sweet boy. One boy who grows up in a family that ignores him, and who isn't entirely stable to begin with. Excitable Boy*, now sixteen, is yanked away from his two friends to go into Witness Protection with the rest of his family. Who gets killed two years later.
I have most of the novel written. The part that I don't have, the part that's the hard one I'm going to work on today, is the part where his family yanks him away. This is... I can't remember the literary term for it, but this is the part where everything starts going to shit. The turning point. The point where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern could have said no. And I know exactly how much it's going to hurt him not to be able to even say goodbye or explain. Especially to the girl. And I don't want to write this. But I have to.
I don't want to write it for two reasons. One, because I know I'm going to want to cry or get very drunk or both afterwards, because I identify far too much with my characters. Two, and maybe more importantly (maybe not) because I'm not sure I can do this kind of crash-down justice without resorting to cliches and emo-language. I don't want this to become a farce, a caricature of tragedy. I want it to be real. And I don't have enough faith in my own writing to believe I can pull it off.
Still. Here goes nothing.
Because, as the wise man once said: the alternative is unthinkable.
ETA: Yes, I will post the Scene o' Doom when I'm done.
*This makes sense if you know the (Warren Zevon?) song.
I've been writing this novel on and off for three years. It's a tragedy, so there's alway going to be something poignant about writing it. I may have gotten too involved with the characters.
Three children, psychically gifted, grow up together. One girl, one fairly stable and well-adjusted and sweet boy. One boy who grows up in a family that ignores him, and who isn't entirely stable to begin with. Excitable Boy*, now sixteen, is yanked away from his two friends to go into Witness Protection with the rest of his family. Who gets killed two years later.
I have most of the novel written. The part that I don't have, the part that's the hard one I'm going to work on today, is the part where his family yanks him away. This is... I can't remember the literary term for it, but this is the part where everything starts going to shit. The turning point. The point where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern could have said no. And I know exactly how much it's going to hurt him not to be able to even say goodbye or explain. Especially to the girl. And I don't want to write this. But I have to.
I don't want to write it for two reasons. One, because I know I'm going to want to cry or get very drunk or both afterwards, because I identify far too much with my characters. Two, and maybe more importantly (maybe not) because I'm not sure I can do this kind of crash-down justice without resorting to cliches and emo-language. I don't want this to become a farce, a caricature of tragedy. I want it to be real. And I don't have enough faith in my own writing to believe I can pull it off.
Still. Here goes nothing.
Because, as the wise man once said: the alternative is unthinkable.
ETA: Yes, I will post the Scene o' Doom when I'm done.
*This makes sense if you know the (Warren Zevon?) song.