after a few days of reflection, some feedback from Beloved and Trusted Friend, i have decided that my story that's set in peru will stay in peru for now. i've also decided that i need to switch the point of view (pov) from first person to third. that's a switch from an I-character who tells the story to a he/she character. this will allow me to switch back and forth from chapter to chapter between two female characters without driving the reader crazy. it also relieves me of some of the burden of differentiating the characters' voices enough so the reader realizes very very quickly they're in the Other One's Head.
these last few days i haven't been writing much. but i've carried the story around in my head, feeling it slosh around like a big stew in a very large cauldron. every so often a big chunk swirls to the surface, splashes into view. i dance around with it, if only for a second or two, or maybe even just observe it, then let it go. i used to be afraid that i'd lose stuff that way.... that if i didn't capture every fleeting word or phrase, they'd be gone, forever, into that Limbo labelled Lost Thoughts...right down the hall from the one for Lost Socks. i know a lot of writers feel that way. and so writing becomes a desperate act, like a hunter, stalking a flying flock.
but now i know better. if it's in there, it's in there... ripening and seasoning. it comes in its time, and that time is not necessarily mine. there are things i can control like whose point of view and what tense to tell the story in. there are things, like the story itself, i have no control of at all.
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