Saturday -- again, as long as I allow myself to sleep as late as I need to (since it's the only day of the week I can do so) and perform a minimum of errands before getting to my office, I wind up sitting down to work between 11:00 and 11:30. Perhaps part of the issue is that the neighborhood is so pleasant early in the morning, and my office is do dreary. It's very dark during the morning and gets increasingly brighter, due to reflected light, during the day. An hour before sunset the room is brilliantly lit by sun reflecting off the walls of the airshaft, even though it never shines directly into the room. Then the sun goes behind a row of trees across the street and suddenly the room becomes twilit again.
So when I begin work in the morning I'm bound to turn on lights. I imagine that during the winter the problem will be much worse, since the sun will not climb high enough even to reach into the airshaft and will set behind the buildings across the street earlier. Plus, it will be cold, probably very cold. I'll have to take steps such as get a heater and perhaps even a heated cushion for the chair.
Anyway. All that is neither here nor there. To the book.
Q: What does Denny offer? It has to be related to his character, "desiring release and redemption."
A: Perhaps it's not something as quotidian as a job to rival Don's putative offer. Perhaps it's something that actually does not give Hap a way to keep his apartment and his lover, but something that Hap still wants because all middle-aged men want it: a chance for complete escape and starting over again. Perhaps Denny even holds out the possibility of Hap bringing his lover along.
Q: What is important here about the remote setting?
A: Hap can't phone Meeghan and talk excitedly about it. In fact, that's the main reason Don brought them all up there: because there's no communication.
Q: Shouldn't you make that very clear?
A: Yes, I can bring it up shortly. Perhaps Hap can have a conversation with the ghostly hippie he glimpsed boarding the ferry, and the man can tell him a little about life in Shattermine -- specifically the remoteness.
Q: Why is it important that Hap (and the others) can't discuss what's going on up there with others?
A: Don doesn't want them to until he settles who's working for him. (I should have him get them all to sign NDAs when they arrive, though -- humor.) But in terms of the narrative, I want the environment to be more like a pressure cooker, so that the only resources the characters have are each other. This is important not only for atmospheric reasons but so the characters are deprived of information and support from outside; this plays into the hands of the characters who are willing to be more manipulative, which is almost everyone except Hap.
Q: What else do you need to establish that you haven't?
A: Bart and Hap are good friends. This is necessary for the plot, as I explained above: Don intends to reach Bart through Hap.
Q: One more thing to think about?
A: I have to take care in revealing Denny's story -- which parts to reveal when, for what advantage.
3:00 pm. I've written about 1400 words, covering several small issues. I went back and introduced Greg very briefly so I could bring him up in the middle of ch. 4 where I find myself right now. And I wrote more about the remoteness of Shattermine and of Don's lodge. Chapter 4 is now 3100 words so there's time for a nice long passage at the end. I'm of a mind to write a long story about Denny. There are some main parts of his backstory I need to cover.
So when I begin work in the morning I'm bound to turn on lights. I imagine that during the winter the problem will be much worse, since the sun will not climb high enough even to reach into the airshaft and will set behind the buildings across the street earlier. Plus, it will be cold, probably very cold. I'll have to take steps such as get a heater and perhaps even a heated cushion for the chair.
Anyway. All that is neither here nor there. To the book.
Q: What does Denny offer? It has to be related to his character, "desiring release and redemption."
A: Perhaps it's not something as quotidian as a job to rival Don's putative offer. Perhaps it's something that actually does not give Hap a way to keep his apartment and his lover, but something that Hap still wants because all middle-aged men want it: a chance for complete escape and starting over again. Perhaps Denny even holds out the possibility of Hap bringing his lover along.
Q: What is important here about the remote setting?
A: Hap can't phone Meeghan and talk excitedly about it. In fact, that's the main reason Don brought them all up there: because there's no communication.
Q: Shouldn't you make that very clear?
A: Yes, I can bring it up shortly. Perhaps Hap can have a conversation with the ghostly hippie he glimpsed boarding the ferry, and the man can tell him a little about life in Shattermine -- specifically the remoteness.
Q: Why is it important that Hap (and the others) can't discuss what's going on up there with others?
A: Don doesn't want them to until he settles who's working for him. (I should have him get them all to sign NDAs when they arrive, though -- humor.) But in terms of the narrative, I want the environment to be more like a pressure cooker, so that the only resources the characters have are each other. This is important not only for atmospheric reasons but so the characters are deprived of information and support from outside; this plays into the hands of the characters who are willing to be more manipulative, which is almost everyone except Hap.
Q: What else do you need to establish that you haven't?
A: Bart and Hap are good friends. This is necessary for the plot, as I explained above: Don intends to reach Bart through Hap.
Q: One more thing to think about?
A: I have to take care in revealing Denny's story -- which parts to reveal when, for what advantage.
3:00 pm. I've written about 1400 words, covering several small issues. I went back and introduced Greg very briefly so I could bring him up in the middle of ch. 4 where I find myself right now. And I wrote more about the remoteness of Shattermine and of Don's lodge. Chapter 4 is now 3100 words so there's time for a nice long passage at the end. I'm of a mind to write a long story about Denny. There are some main parts of his backstory I need to cover.