Saturday, February 5, 2011

At the Gay Bar.

After work last night (mind you, I work at a bar so clocking out can be between 230-3am) I decided that I wasn't happy with the choice of my novel being told first person through multiple characters. When I got home and sat in front of my computer, I cracked open a beer and got to work on the 48 pages i had. I fell asleep about 430 with my head on the desk and about halfway through the pages.

When I woke, I realized there was no turning back and i finished out the project. In the course of transferring, I began to add new depth that just wasn't possible through the lens of first person. Don't get me wrong, I love to write in first person, present tense. In fact, most of the short pieces I've written have been structure in just that way but for this (much longer) story, I needed a change. I'm not as comfortable writing this way but I can almost bet I'll learn more about the craft and the characters I'm imagining by stepping outside my comfort zone.

I'm off to work again tonight. Just in case you were wondering, I work security at a gay bar downtown. Makes for some interesting scenes I paint into my stories. Some of which has found its way into the novel. I'll post a sample below.

Daily Update
Page Length - 55
Sample -

Paul got to work and found Persephone Chase, the club’s drag queen emcee doubled over near the double glass doors. Drunk, she had let her mascara run down the length of her face making her look like a cross between the Crow and Cruella DeVille. She was hired at Circcles a short time after Paul was and not a week had passed in two years without her alcoholic ass coming close to a nervous breakdown because of a bra strap malfunction or girdle being one size too small. Sometimes she’d come out of the dressing room in sweatpants screaming that she wouldn’t go on stage because she couldn’t get her package tucked between her butt cheeks comfortably. It was always something.

1 comment:

  1. I love that you gained so much from a new perspective. Hurray! It was probably worth the all-niter.

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