Whew -- well, I managed to squeeze out 2000 words yesterday -- exactly 2000. That leaves only 4000 for today. Since I'm doing a Greg story, it might not be that hard. The most inspired day I've had so far is when I wrote the chapter about Greg and Growler. However, I have to differentiate it from my own experience as far as possible, and I have to make it typically Greg -- suspicious, aggressive, insistent on getting what he paid for. I think it would be interesting to make it representative of the business approach of a certain type of person, and in fact the original impulse I had for Greg's character fits into this perfectly -- the obnoxious business type I encountered in Las Vegas whom I overhead saying: "I'm gonna make about $2000 on the deal. Hey, I figure, he charges me for his labor, so I'm gonna charge him for my money. If he worked for free then I could do him a favor." Implicit in this view of the world is the notion that everyone else is bound by the values you yourself subscribe to. But there's a particularly delicious irony I could bring out: On the one hand, Greg feels he pays prostitutes to do whatever he tells them to do. On the other hand, he says to himself that the prostitutes are independent contractors who will, as he does, strive as hard as they can to get the most out of the transaction. If I'm good, I can make his approach representative of a certain kind of sexual ethos in addition to the business ethos; I can make the business ethos stand in for the sexual ethos even in a sex scene.

I also want to think about what happens after this scene. As a rule I think I need to alternate three types of scenes:
  • Sex stories
  • Scenes that relate to the business-y plot
  • Internal/narrative passages without dialogue.
Ever since "Make Nice" I have been wary of writing dialogue scenes that go on and on. And I generally need more lyrical passages. The last bullet allows me to avoid dialogue -- I think it gives the reader a break and a change of pace -- and include descriptions and ideas.

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