Monday, September 1, 2014

Problems in 'Pinedom'

The Adventures of Jack and Red - a pause to reflect and regroup (and repair?). 

The Breaks

I began writing the Jack and Red story over two years ago as a serialized blog-based saga. Most of this writing has been done in coffee shops while taking a break on bike rides. I have tried to take these rides on a regular basis but not all rides take me to a coffee shop. Recently, most of my rides have taken me to work. This led a break in the story telling. I have since re-retired and am now able to stop at coffee shops again. 

After the break, I dove back into the tale with some new ideas and new characters. After finishing three chapters I went back to read the first and was immediately struck by a problem. Over the break I had changed the voice of the story from 1st person to 3d person.  I'm not an expert but I believe this is a no-no in writing. I have to think about this for a bit and perhaps seek professional help. 

Do I go back and change the voice of the first 9 chapters?
Or do I change the voice in the last three?
Or neither? 

I like Jack telling the story in the first part but I also like the bit with Jimmy and his Mom and Jack isn't there so he can't be telling that part in 1st person.  Mostly I hate to get bogged down on this when there's a story to tell. It just seems like a waste of time.

Which medium is which.

Shortly after starting the blog on Jack Pynesapp, I decided to buy the domain name Jackpynesapp.com. I have liked this name since I created it 40 years ago and I believe it's worth it's own 'dot' identity. At the same time I bought the name, I created a web site and I have been using it as sort of an annotated copy of the entries I have made on the blog.

After thinking about this I realize that this is backwards. The web site should be the refined work and the blog should be - well it should be a blog. A place to log thoughts and ideas (in a rough form?). Granted this concept has been somewhat subverted by Facebook, but since I don't use Facebook a whole lot I should probably get my mediums straight. 

Once again, fixing the form will interfere with the function (of telling the story). So, for this at least, I won't to go back and change the past but from now on I will try to adopt this new strategy.


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