Around This Time 2018: Writing Capitulation

 

This part of my diary covers the genesis and development of my short story Capitulation, published elsewhere in this blog. It may have some overlap with my last Diary post. I have edited out most bits not related to the writing. It ends on April 25 (today, six years ago).

4/19/18: I did have one new idea that I may as well record here, lest it be lost. No story yet, but time and characters. It's in the fifties, and a new Director has been appointed. The Bureau has been eclipsed, obscured, and ridiculed in the Atomic Age. It is a political appointment, a reward or sinecure; the new Director has neither experience nor belief. He is simply a 1950's politician: early 40's, ambitious, good at his core, dedicated to his career and playing the game, but naive outside his wheelhouse. The Secretary (who he at first treats as a secretary) is a dour, serious woman with plenty of experience; I cast her as a combination of Elsa Lanchester and Dorothy L. Sayers. Plain-looking, no nonsense, business-like, middle-50's. They are mutually suspicious, and she is especially contemptuous of his lack of vocation for their peculiar business. Their first adventure is them getting to know each other and the politician getting to know the reality of the Bureau.

And now it is even a little more developed than when I started making the note. I wonder what they could face.  Maybe HE'S a weirdness dampener. I should check the Files.

 

4/19/2018: Up very early and wrote an e-mail to John, in which I mentioned a fleeting, fugitive idea I had yesterday. This developed the idea even as I wrote it, then it started to snowball after I sent the message off. Wrote a few notes. I write more notes on and off through the day as 'Capitulation' continues to snowball. I see it so clearly as an old 50's movie. E-mail John again, telling him I have my new Bureau story, and he gives me his suggestions. In a kind of trance in the evening, dreaming up dialogue and plot points, dipping into TV shows, and playing WWF. I wonder if I can write the story (it seems so clear, except the 'Monster of the Week'!) in one day. The important parts are the characters and how they interact with the Bureau.

 

4/20/2018: Get up early in the morning, but not full of beans and buzzing like a bee. 6:30 AM. I e-mail John of my intent: to start new story, "Capitulation" and try to have a first draft by the end of the weekend. Start at 8 AM on the tale. Stop at about 12:30 PM (with breaks to eat breakfast and to ponder); have got through the heavy lifting (the beginning) and got Lovett to the Bureau. Much re-writing and polishing as I go, but managed these not-quite five satisfactory pages, and also more notes as I went along. Now I have to crank the machinery up to introduce Edna and the office. Managed to come up with my monster: a Gremlin. Not too original, but I have a few original things to say about them, I think, and it is 'period.'

 

4/21/2018: 1 PM, and I'm wide awake. To try to sleep or write? The hardest part of writing is starting up again; when I actually get going it can be engrossing.

Managed to sleep until about 6:30 AM, then after a bit settled down to write. Brought the story up to where Yorke leaves Lovett with the brief, so much introduction. Paused at 10:45 AM, almost 10 new pages done and some little re-writing. Shall I continue today? Who knows? But for now, a break. Ran the draft through the Natural Reader, and more re-writing, and at 1 PM, another pause. A restless, hungry pause.

Wrote from 5 to 6:30 PM, five new pages, up to the party invitation, and even managed to introduce the wife into the conversation. Despite Kameron coming in at 6 PM and talking at me. Very happy with this stretch. My writing was the only thing that redeemed the day. Finally, Susan and Andy returned at 10 PM, Kam left, and I curled up to sleep.

 

4/22/2018: Woke up at 3:30 AM, decided I was up for the day. Did the routine, then settled at the computer. Started at 5 AM with a little re-writing and note reading then settled down to it. A bit after 7 AM had finished the Tyrone/Barbara bit, about 4 1/2 new pages. Time for a break, and a run through the Reader.

About 10 AM had another go, the watcher part, and stopped about noon with Lovett unpacking his briefcase. So, a little over 4 pages.

Started about 4:45 PM and stopped at about 7:15 PM. Lovett's lunch until his judgement. 5 new pages. Considering for a while there I was only doing a page a day, I'm whizzing right along. I'm having fun and SEEING everything unfold, like an old movie. Let's hope I can keep it up.

Ate at 7 PM. I spent some time doing little tweaks to the story and a few notes, and, at 10 PM, I think that now I might call it a day. If I go by recent times, I'll probably get up early and start writing again.

4/23/2018: Got up at 2 AM from a dream, tried to lay down for a while till 3, then decided I was up for the day. Bible, shower, dressed, then went over notes, and did small rewrites. Started writing about 4 AM and stopped at 5:15 AM, having got to where the road trip is declared. About 3 1/2 pages. As a lark, introduced a young John as a senatorial page. That should be a hoot. Next phase (6 I think) ended at 7:30 AM.

Started Phase 7 at approximately 10 AM and finished at 3:10 PM and shot it off to John. Now we play the waiting game. That's 16 new pages. My eyes are almost crossing with fatigue, and I keep typing the wrong words. Not mistakes, but whole real wrong words. Five days ago, I had the inkling of an idea, it snowballed for two days, I wrote it in three (technically four), and now it's as long as my longest story. I am spent. Now for rewrites.

Well, as of 10:20 PM John still hasn't called me; he didn't respond to my morning e-mail yet either. But then he may just be brewing up a reply. Made cucumber salad today, so you know it's Spring. Kind of zombied out through supper, but then I had started very early and was carried through the day in a sort of waking dream. I would look up from writing and notice hours had passed. Napped a little from 7-9 PM, then got up and washed dishes. I did things like calculated how many KB I did for each phase, how much I did each day, etc., mostly to kill time, but my mind is so fried had hard time keeping track of the math, but I think I have it pinned down. Now going to obsessively check my e-mail again.

I have a really bad feeling that I might die tonight without hearing what John thinks of this story [I'd been having some health problems].

 

4/24/2018: Got up about 7:30. Got e-mail from John about 8 AM saying he's still reading the story and will try to finish it at work, and that he'd call me later. Spent the day doing revisions on and off, still not quite able divert my mind to anything else. Ended up with a Capitulation 3.0, later re-titled 22 Capitulation in the Short Stories folder. My thoughts are still revolving around Capitulation. John called me just as I sat down to eat, 5:30 PM. We talked and he gave me a few notes: make the gremlin creepier, would a senator be able to head a bureau, I wrote Trevor instead of Tyrone -- twice! He seemed impressed with it, and I related all the trivia that went into its making. I told him I'd already shot him some re-writes.

It's a peculiar thing about working on my writing. When I do I seem to enter a kind of timeless zone where time passes without notice. This even goes for re-writing. Even when I'm doing something else, I'm off, preoccupied with the tale.

Getting ready to send Alan and Kenny the new stories, get some input. I hunger for more approval. 

 

4/25/2018: Spent day refining story, looking up ideas for new stories, partly by mining dream files. Rain really slopped things up, but the cool wet wind before the rain made the chinaberry blossom smell oh-so-sweet.