44/52 - Moment by Moments

“Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression … We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.” 

- Isaac Bashevis Singer

Dear Internauts, 

Thus we see the beginning of National Novel Writing Month 2017, or NaNoWriMo—a congested cataclysm of creativity, community, and complexes in which a gazillion would-be novelists set forth to write 50,000 words of a first draft in the limited space colloquially known as November. I've participated several times in the past, only ever completing the challenge, or "winning", once. Usually I'll get pretty deep into the month on good ground, than flail about a bit before falling irreparably behind in the last third and losing track of my sense and motivation before the end comes along to harmonize with my seasonal affective disorder. As if writers aren't neurotic enough, though I suppose for some the challenge can be more inspiring than haunting. 

This year, I'm simply continuing the work of writing out the whole plot for my graphic novel. I started with something of a chronological timeline of important events that take place in the main setting. From there it's a matter of setting up the chapters both as functions of the whole and as miniature plot-lines in themselves, with rising and falling action, climax of sorts, and a hook to leave off before the next chapter begins. 

I've been particularly focusing on a method of story-telling I think I may have heard from a clip of a speech Trey and Matt Parker gave once. It's meant to keep the action moving along by having the connecting fiber between each beat focused on either "but then" or "thus then", instead of "and then". The issue being that "and then" tends to place one action after another in a way far too episodic to maintain forward momentum. This happened "but then" this happened, however, allows for both an obvious continuation from one beat to the next as well as a challenge to continually subvert expectations and keep the protagonist(s) active participants and drivers of the story. "Thus then" works as a way to fit those points which expand upon the previous, the difference between "thus then" and "and then" being what flows naturally and what is simply trying to keep going from one plot point to the next simply out of necessity to hit those moments. 

(Here's a video saying that much better than I can.)

Moments alone, however, don't make a cohesive or purposefully driven plot. 

Although we do often remember specific scenes, set-pieces, or lines from a work, it's the characters and their motivations from one beat to the next which allow us to feel as if we are not simply observers but emotional participants in their lives. Though in some of my favorite genres and plot structures, the focus may seem to be more on the cool or the wondrous or the awe-inspiring or the fascinating, the most affecting of any story-based works of art find a way to connect to our shared humanity. And what better way to do so than by getting us to care about the characters? They don't even have to be the "good guy". 

As I explore my own colorful cadre of maddening miscreants, I tend to find that the best use of moments is one in which even the most absurd can be connected to through a link with these people. 

Speaking of, as I mentioned last week, I finished reading John Green's Turtles All the Way Down recently, and wow. I wouldn't go so far to say that Aza Holmes is this generations Holden Caufield, but I will say that I haven't felt so connected to a protagonist's inner thought life since Catcher in the Rye. So that's my endorsement. 

Speaking of endorsements, here's a little thought: 

One of the many problems with the idea that commercialization should simply be accepted as a necessary function of media is that it completely denies an audience’s intellectual ability to judge the worth of supporting a work while simultaneously forcing an increasing amount of often unrelated garbage down our throats. Thus they can no longer support the work simply because they find it worth supporting, but rather the work is financially bolstered up by the same vile mechanism which distracts from, demeans, and infringes upon the independence of the work’s message. 

You’ve got a possible masterpiece, but who’s to know when it’s the size of a postal stamp and the frame is an arena-sized billboard of blindingly obnoxious industrial space waste? 

I get that everyone’s gotta make a living, but if the art which inherently expresses a part of humanity unable to be fully locked down by the demons of capitalism is enshrouded by its flags and propaganda, even the most sincere attempts at chain-breaking are made flimsy and pathetic. Maybe it’s simply the sad reality of trying to survive in a money-mad, material world. Still, I’d like to believe that there must be some way for the method to match the means. 

Let us NOT all be made hypocrites by our daily necessities. 

At the same time, I was watching 60 Minutes with my mom the other night and boy, are TV commercials weird or what? I'd nearly forgotten how cringey they are. And you can't even skip them after five seconds. Sure, I grew up with that, so maybe I'm jaded. Still, have they gotten more desperate now that so many get their media from non-cable sources. Even the ones on the radio don't seem as bad as the commercials on TV, but maybe it was just the hour I caught, being speckled as it was with political ads too. 

So anyway, (one of) my problem(s) with being a writer who's so often been inspired by current events and social justice issues is how it's all just so overwhelming. 

On one hand, I am on a semi-constant emotional roller coaster ride of madness by being even kinda woke to the contemporary absurdities. On the other, I'm not sure that raising awareness is good enough anymore. I don't want to blog or draw or sing about some bad thing in the same way that I'd just retweet it. 

I don't want to contribute to call-out culture as some simple, brainless conduit for sharing the  24 hour bad news cycle. 

It's too easy to say that other folks have said it better. And it's not enough to simply pass along the latest crisis, scandal, or disaster porn. It overwhelms me, and—despite my many issues—I'm technically an adult in the latter half of my twenties. I do worry about the affect that an atmosphere of negativity has on younger folks. Similarly, I know that there was plenty of stuff I was kept away from as a kid because it was part of the evil/sinful world and deemed inappropriate for me to even know about, much less learn how to process healthily. We can't shelter the future of humanity from everything, but we also can't just pretend that they're somehow automatically immune to the torrential downpour of EVERYTHING that is an integral part of the information age. 

Truly, though, I do believe that this group of kids and teens coming up is poised for some brilliance, so long as we can do our part to help and not hinder their growth into the harbingers of a better age. 

What do you think?

Thanks for reading,

Odist