I heart DFW

During my slump last week, I spent a little time trying to get a little more grounded in the face of the doubting voices in my head that really called into question what I was trying to accomplish with this piece. And then I found this little gem which set me straight.

"I realized that the point of being post-modern or being avant garde wasn’t following a certain kind of tradition, that all that stuff is BS imposed by critics who can’t follow it afterwards, but what great artists do, and it sounds really trite to say that line. What the really great artists do is that they are entirely themselves. They’ve got their own vision, their own way of fracturing reality and if it’s authentic and true, you’ll feel it in your nerve endings." ~ David Foster Wallace

Charlie Rose interviews David Foster Wallace

The words didn't exactly pour forth easily from then on, but it did flow with purpose and I've eeked out another 15,000 words since. Here's a chronicle of the journey for the past few days:

Nov 18: Even though I wrote a couple pages this morning, I plan to take the rest of the day off to recharge so that I can tackle a full day of writing tomorrow. (56,370 words)

Nov 19: A change of scenery helped a little today. I went to Café Amandine and parked myself there for a couple hours despite having only had less than four hours of sleep. Powered through Chapter 23 after skipping over Chapters 21 and 22… Not sure if I like them very much and will have to think about that particular subplot later when my mind is fresh. (59,050 words)

Nov 20: Once again skipped over a tricky subplot comprising Chapter 24 to focus on the A-story and fleshed out Chapter 25. This is one of those days where I feel like the novel is becoming quite a pastiche of incongruous ideas. (62,415 words)

Nov 21: Chapter 25 is turning into an interesting metafictional piece that may draw too much attention to itself. Hopefully I can keep most of this and not be forced back into conventional storytelling with this one. (65,010 words)

Punchlines

Twelve inches ago, I could have helped you. Twelve inches ago, something could be done, but now I'm afraid it's too late.

Sometimes, it's more than a foot that can come between two people.