Class on Wednesday, show on Friday night, 3 person practice group Saturday, Thank You, Robot practice to day 12 to 3, and then a somewhat random practice group from 4 to 7 today. I had plans to go to a music think at 9pm, but that was apparently cancelled. Now I am wasting time in Starbucks before a thing at 10pm. (There is one persn out there that will admonish me for this evenings plans. Yeah, yeah. But my other plans fell through and if I just went home, I was going to be depressed. Better into the lions' den than to hide in the corner. Besides I'm feeling kind of strong.)
Anywhozits, I've had yet another brain switch with improv this weekend. Nothing huge, but I am seeingthings more three dimenstionally. Imagine that I have spent the last 2 months staring at a square. I've been staring and staring, and I feel I understand the sqaure in total but my hands just can't quite hold on to it. On Friday night I saw something strange about the square, something that didn't quite make sense. On Saturday, I was shown the other side ofthe square, the mirror image. It was disorienting at first to see this other square that was in fact the first square but entirely different. Today someone gently proded me to turn my head. And I suddenly saw that it wasn't a square at all. It's a damn cube! Now I can see three sides of the cube, some sides clearer than others. The sides are all part of the same object, all the sides are connected and rely on the others, but they are different. And I can only see three sides. There is another three I have never even seen (assuming that it is actually a cube and not some more complicated type of object... god forbid that it might be a four-dimenstional cube!).
Yes, stupid analogy, but that's as close I can get.
The novel continues apace. It took me much longer to getto the body than it should. I am going to have to cut a lot of my flashback stuff. The problem is that (1) the flashback stuff is easy to write because I can just expand on the first portion of Genesis, and (2) I have been thing about the flashback stuff for going on 15 years. Not all the time when I first became fascinated with the story of Lilith, Eve and Adam. I think back now to how one dimenstionally I used to think of the story. Ah, the heady days at college! The story means a lot more to me now... and no longer reads like a sensitive straight white boys rant against the patriarchy.
I just need to devote time to the "present" portion of the book. I got to the body too far in. The next thing is that I need to get to Eve. I've been riminating on her for awhile. She used to be so hard for me to concieve of. On the surface she seems so weak compared to Lilith's strength. But now she appeals to me. Both of them share a deep sadness, and their is a kinship bewteen the two. I have been thinking that Eve would only be in one scene, but I am thinking that she my come along for the investigation.
Adam is still dodging me. He needs to be there, he is very important, it is just hard for me to get past what a sheep he was/is. All of his choices seem so shallow and passive. I know that the hook is him as father. (Admit it, he has to be a crappy husband/lover.) His moment has to come from his love for his sons and his attempt to be a good father... and we know how that turned out.
There are some other major points I haven't quite figured out. Like who actually killed Cain. Yeah, the thing that the whole novel hinges on. Sigh.
Neil Gaiman (yes, two Gaiman mentions in one day) recently commented on finishing the first chapter to his new novel.
And today I finished writing Chapter One of The Graveyard Book, and it's a real book. I know it's a real book because there are all sorts of things I don't quite know yet, and I can't wait to find them out.
Happiness.
It's so nice to know that the feeling continues.
