I read an anecdote somewhere about the revelations supplied by various drugs. In this minitale, a fellow took his dose of whatever and, in the throes of the impartation of divine wisdom by the universe, managed to retain enough sense and motor skills to write some of it down. In the morning, he grabbed his notepad, eager to solidify the already-fading sense of acquired wisdom and Great Truths. In a shaky, barely legible scrawl, he had written: Feet go into shoes!!!!
When I woke up at 2AM last night for no apparent reason, I started thinking about the novel to pass the time until my brain decided to turn itself back off or the sun rose, whichever came first. At some point--being not drowsy, not half-awake, but WIDE AWAKE--I got up, fussed with the laptop and wrote down some important things about the book.
In the morning, I opened the file and read what I had written:
What?
Of course it doesn't make any sense to you. But that right there represents the intertwining of two major plot arcs, the proposal of no less than four plot elements in support of that weaving, the revamping of a major character, an idea that may lead to a significant structural element of the entire narrative, and at least one portion of the end of the whole frickin' book.
See what I did there? Made you think it was going to be gibberish with the lead about the psychedelic guy's revelation, and then it turns out that what I wrote was important after all.
Ah, forget it. You'll see what I mean when it's all done. It'll be awesome.
When I woke up at 2AM last night for no apparent reason, I started thinking about the novel to pass the time until my brain decided to turn itself back off or the sun rose, whichever came first. At some point--being not drowsy, not half-awake, but WIDE AWAKE--I got up, fussed with the laptop and wrote down some important things about the book.
In the morning, I opened the file and read what I had written:
Brilliant, yeah? Total monster best-seller, that.The plan:
Intersection of the shadow group that's after Putnam (formerly Phil), Nelson's pursuit of Putnam, and Shelley's incipient love thing with Cabie. Cabie kidnapped by shadow group?
Ends up: $250M from Nelson (gov't), $250M from the Reverend. Putnam does his thing: the government ends up paying itself, and Putnam snags high-grade ghost software and disappears.
Everything hackable! Shelley's drugs, Putnam's warez.
Use grading of student essays to portray culture/world? ONLY IF IT ADVANCES THE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What?
Of course it doesn't make any sense to you. But that right there represents the intertwining of two major plot arcs, the proposal of no less than four plot elements in support of that weaving, the revamping of a major character, an idea that may lead to a significant structural element of the entire narrative, and at least one portion of the end of the whole frickin' book.
See what I did there? Made you think it was going to be gibberish with the lead about the psychedelic guy's revelation, and then it turns out that what I wrote was important after all.
Ah, forget it. You'll see what I mean when it's all done. It'll be awesome.
Sometimes I use a voice recorder and capture first sentences out of R.E.M. state. Usually that's where the MacGuffin evolves its sometimes bulletproof organic elements. Einstein agreed that the major structural integrity of new design survives only through practical dream lucidity. Without it, as Jung said, we have only part of the picture.