I have been thinking about Peter more, as was my intention. I began to write a short story about him that I intend to include in the novel. Quite soon actually. A story about him and another lover.
It has been helpful to write about Peter when Angela is not around. Just to take a break from the first draft has been helpful because it has been frying my brain. Also, through writing this, I have learned to better understand why a woman would be attracted to this man. For instance, if I met him in a bar or if I were at his house for a party, how would he seduce me? How would he seduce you? Because he would.
So, this is what has been on the fore front of my mind, this is what has been keeping me up at night. And when I began to understand Peter, he became more real. He became whole. And my short lived writers block was gone, the first draft began to move forward once again.
However, since understanding Peter, I have discovered a huge flaw in the first draft that sooner or later I am going to have to go back and fix. You see, the story begins as Angela is leaving her husband. You don’t know why, at first you don’t even know she is leaving him at all, you don’t know why she is packing, or why she is drunk or why she is putting on stage make up. Then suddenly a new timeline begins and Angela is a young woman in a bar, being picked up by a handsome giant. These two stories are told simultaneously, jumping back and forth to and from one another.
In the second story line, Angela meets Peter in a bar and then stays locked in his house for a week. I know why she would do this, as impulsive as it may seem, it is because she falls in love, madly and deeply in love, so much so that she is obsessed, almost depraved! But, as I was writing it, I was having trouble presenting a scenario in which this would happen that was believable. The problem has been the fluidity of the scenes that deal with her deciding to quit her job and basically become this man’s sex toy.
BUT NOW I KNOW HOW TO DO IT!
It dawned on me as I was tending to the first (typed) draft that all I need is a snow storm. The snow storm of the century, they will be trapped in that house for a week and there they will fall in love! It’s perfect, it’s romantic, it will provoke beautiful imagery to tease the senses. It may be a bit cliché, yes, but I think it will work. I think it may but just what we need.
I am about to go back up North to my parents’ home. I hope it snows, a big snow storm. A lights out, constant fire, candles lit, blankets on, no contact with the world kind of snow storm. I hope, I hope! Regardless if there is or if there isn’t, I am going to do the things Angela and Peter would have done. I am going to sit next to the fire place, I am going to cook grand breakfasts, I am going to make love in the cold, gray afternoon. I’m going to soak it all up, paying close attention to how it feels to exist!
P.S. I am adding this as I post this to the blog, because it took me two days to write this and another day to post it. And before I wrote this I wasn't on the writing streak that I am now. Non stop, all day! I don't know how I am going to sleep tonight but I must because tomorrow is Friday, our last Friday down here, and it will be busy. Anyway, I just wanted to add that the words have been flowing, looking back over the first full draft has been a real success. I have begun weaving in the snow storm and I do think it is perfect. Anyway, it is 3:20 in the morning and my husband is already in bed. Goodnight!
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