Quarantine Project Day 23
Another day of busting coal. I wonder if I doomed myself by saying it was coming out easy.
Here's an interesting thing. I very nearly got tempted today in the way of Post Modernism. That is to say, I almost opted to write a chapter as a formal, professional account, offered in an appropriate bureaucratic register and presented as a facsimile report from one of the major characters. But I rejected the idea for two reasons.
1) I'm not attracted to post-modernism as a mode of storytelling or novel writing. I have a post-modernist novel yellowing in a drawer somewhere, from the days before I was published. PM was fascinating when it originally evolved some years back, but that was really only the shock of the new. In many ways it's a specious form, with a lot of surface glitter and primarily a cerebral appeal. But the intellectuality of post-modernism always acts as a brake on the emotional or visceral impact of a story.
2) I quickly came to my senses when I realised I was tempted down this route simply because the going was hard. That is to say, the post-modernist idea was just taking the easy way out. A quick-fix word grab. Of course, you post-rationalise that this might be an interesting, lively and playful way forward...
Nah.
Get back to the Real Thing. Lift that barge, tote that bail. Anyway it was graft today, but at least I was rewarded for spurning the Post Modern demon with a light-of-foot 2209 words.
(For previous blogs in the Quarantine Project click on "achives")
