Catching Up with Becky

So, now I have to start writing my next book.  And as I decided after finishing the last one, this time I must outline the story ahead of time.  Sure, it’s less fun than just starting to type and see where it ends up.  But it’s also so much less dangerous.  I remember in the last third of “The Sniper” I painted myself into a corner and I had to delete five thousand words and start off in another direction.  And I got seriously confused and had to do a bunch of outlining anyway, so I might as well do some big picture plot planning at the beginning and leave the fine tuning to my unconscious while it’s flowing through my fingertips.

But it’s funny.  It’s not plot events that have been running through my head lately.  It’s characters.  I feel like I want more people and different people showing up in the story this time around.  I want some humorous characters showing up.  I might even want a joke or two being told.  And I think I want an academic type and maybe even an actor.  I was listening to some Shakespeare recently.  It was John Gielgud reciting “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” from Macbeth.  And it struck me that a little poetry and a little philosophy might be a lot of fun to write into even a story like mine.  Now, mind you, I said a little poetry.  And it doesn’t have to look like poetry.  It just has to signify to me that maybe the character on the page has an immortal soul after all.

And as for philosophy, well, it can be practical philosophy.  It can be political philosophy.  And what could be more timely than political philosophy in this time of collapsing republics and demagogues.  Who knows, maybe Connors and Cutter may discuss the application of artificial intelligence to the problem of optimizing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in North America after the end of Boghadair’s War.  Perhaps a completely impartial intelligence could be conjured up to play Solomon to modern day Americans who no longer seem able to live and let live.  Maybe it can cut the baby in half in some modern sense and return us to a functioning society again.  And when I mention Solomon, I think it’s partially because I think there’s a religious (or at least spiritual) dimension to our problems and for which a spiritual solution is necessary.  And Christian revivals are a recurring theme in American history.  And I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking we all need a spiritual boost just about now.

So, yeah, I haven’t got a working plot outline yet but I think it’s time to start.  As I’ve said, I think Bogey will not be dragged into the main action any time soon but personally he’s tied intimately to several important characters and I’m sure he’ll interact with them.  Plus, I have to find out what happened with him and Becky.  That sounded interesting.