B1C19

In a previous post, I talked about the journey of writing this book. That journey was, roughly, "my first and second drafts were terrible because I barely had a plot, and then I got a lot of great ideas which made my third draft so much better."

The obvious next question is: where did those ideas come from?

A common metaphor for writing is weaving. An author can weave the plot threads or characters together. Row by row, as all the threads are woven into place, a beautiful tapestry emerges. This is not what writing feels like for me.

Writing, to me, feels like going for a long walk in a dark and confusing jungle (my mind). As I walk, sometimes I get lucky and find a piece of a quilt that the mysterious forest spirits (my subconscious) have left behind for me.

I then sew this quilt piece into my plot. I have some agency over this process: I can decide where to put the piece, which way is up, whether I should fold the piece before sewing it in. I also have some agency over what trees grow in my jungle; the more I think about comedy, for example, the more trees grow in my forest that are hospitable to forest spirits who like comedy. But, for the most part, I don't consciously control what the completed quilt looks like. That's up to the mysterious forest spirits.

It is important to note that the mysterious forest spirits don't like me. They don't hate me either. They are very mysterious and they have their own agendas. Much like the powerful and capricious Greek gods could either make you immortal or turn you into a stream, my mysterious forest spirits are either helping me write a good book or making a fool out of me.

One example of them almost making a fool out of me is the name of the rich guy funding Project Persephone. As of the third draft, his name is Roman Teal. Hmm...

  1. Very rich guy
  2. Interest in longevity
  3. Has access to awesome AI
  4. Last name sounds like "Teal"
  5. First name is two syllables
  6. Retvrn to Rome vibes

Fuck you, mysterious forest spirits. ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME SUED?

To be honest, I don't think the mysterious forest spirits gave me that name because they hate me. (Probably.) I think they got lazy this one time. They thought "eh, rich guy, wants to live forever, lunch break is coming up, let's go with Roman Teal." I'm going to change this name because there is much more to the character than "rich guy with an interest in longevity." Luckily, this is the kind of minor change I can make without unraveling the whole quilt. I'm not always so lucky (c.f., me having to rewrite the whole book because the forest spirits changed the setting from present-day to a future transformed by AI).