More notes on the new book

I am trying to get the outline of the novel together. Yesterday I wrote out a basic outline of the plot, and then a few ideas on chapters. Today, I was walking on the beach, feeling the cold breeze and a light rain, my Husky Ruby running around on her sixty foot leash, and I could actually see the characters working on paintings. I visualize a lot before writing, which is how Columbia basically tells one to write. I learned there to make stories appear in my mind. I wrote the last book on the strength of what would appear when I had these 'literary vision,' but the problem is that they don't always amount to a book.
this time, like I have wrote before, I want to have a strong outline, so I don't waste too much time.

I am now thinking about what sub-plots I can put in, as well as describing the characters and what they are like. This will not be prose that I necessarily use, just prose to ground me deeply in the characters, so I know what they would say, do, write, think... The other thing that will need to be worked out a bit better is the metaphorical underpinnings of the book. Basically, I want to say what eo Wilson and Wittgenstein said, in a way that makes people think about how they are effected by culture, and how they can think for themselves a bit more.

There is also the aristolian curve to ponder. That is the slow build up to the climax. Books traditionally have various subplots, so there can be three or more points in the book that are mini-climaxes, that add to the impact of the ending climax.

So, the effort today will be to Brainstorm, again.... This may be boring as hell to read, I suppose. I would find this interesting if I was a writer, but who knows?

Okay, the list of characters thus far is.... Paul, who is about five 8, has long black hair, and speaks with his hands a lot. He sliding baths, wears torn up clothes (prefers black), and occasionally falls into deep depressions. He simply cannot handle doing the books and what not for the bar, so he is the one who, when he inherited the building with the bar, invited the other characters to come live with him. He is from Spanish parents, but you would never really know from looking at him.

Neal: he is the Neal cassidy of the bunch, skinny and fast talking, he tends to go on and on. He is smart though, and makes more money than the bar, with dragon head pipes that he makes out of phemo. He comes from a family with an over bearing mother, and as a result he thinks anyone who is criticizing him is his mother, and lashes out.

Matt: He is a high school kid, over weight with a huge reddish afro, a mulatto
His white mother kind of abandoned him, and he started sleeping at the gallery, in a room in the back with a couple couches where various couch surfers end up staying. They party a lot in this back room, so there are usually a couple people sleeping off a drunk in there. The decision to let him come live with them is easy for them. They let him smoke weed, but demand that he finish high school and plan on trying to pay for his college. They have started a fund. Matt is grateful to them, and does all he can to help out.

Pooh: he is the intellectual of the bunch, the one who is interested in philosophy and the driving force behind the website that they keep, where they put up their paintings for sale, and little comedy stories. He is six foot three, handsome, blue eyed, long brown hair that falls all curly around his shoulders. Women like him, but he is in love with someone he can't have, a married women, a painting professor who he had a five year affair with. He doesn't want to date anyone, though he gets drunk and accident's sleeps with a fifteen year old girl who snuck into another bar. He thought she was older, but when he finds out that he has taken her virginity, he feels very responsible toward her, but he doesn't love her.

Caroline: she is Neal's girlfriend, a little hipster at five feet tall, has fire engine red hair, and a great sense of humor. She will be the foil for a lot of the masculine talk that develops when they decide to put their bullets where their mouth is and attack the gang bangers holding a dog fight. She is also a very expensive prostitute, and has more money than any of them. She models as well, and wants to study acting in new York when she has saved enough money. She lives in an expensive apartment on lakeshore.


JOHNATHON: He is five ten, short blonde hair and a goatee. His arms are covered in tattoos, the India ink prison sort. He is just out of prison, where he had been reading their web site. He breaks his parole by not meeting with his parole officer, who would want a piss test taken that Johnathon, who smokes as much weed as possible, couldn't pass. He originally went to jail for pot, but while he was there he killed a man, and ended up serving twelve years. He is 33. He keeps a knife and a gun in holsters in his calf, because he is often filled with a fear that he is going to be attacked. He had a rough time in prison, the object of rape for awhile, until he finally killed one of them and asked for solitary confinement. He then spent his time either reading in his cell, or surfing the net in the prison library. He is also a gifted artist, who can draw faces remarkably well, like the guys at amusement parks who do character's, except his are better, truer to the persons looks. He is a good guy at heart, helps the underdog, etc... But there is a rage in him that when released is difficult to stop. He considers himself crazy and stupid. He is confused about his sexuality. He loves women, but his prison experience, which included taking a male lover, has him wondering. He tells the others that he is straight, and downplays his prison time, which he hides as long as he can, then has to admit when he runs out when the cops come to the store.



POSSIBLE SUB PLOTS????

mat's mother odds at their place and they have to call an ambulance and hide all the weed before the cops come./// a guy makes trouble in the bar, smashing the juke box in when he is told, by the old bartender who was hired by Paulo's uncle years before and who they keep on, that he is too drunk to be served. Johnathon beats this guy up bad and then dumps him in the alley// the website they keep, which I want to use comedy and what not in; how I will integrate this into the text is still a little up in the air. I could do something like, "Neal sits down and writes a story for the blog." then just show a different type of something. The blog can also be the more romantic description of their life, which can be contrasted with the reality of their situation//Paulo's wolf, padre, dies of old age//Caroline and Neals relationship can get rocky at some point, with her deciding to break up with him because he is so poor, and doesn't give her head. He can't bring himself to do this because of the prostitution.

It is late and I am tired. I haven't been smoking weed lately, which keeps me up. Hopefully, being straight will make the designing of the book easier, though I would like to be stoned for the writing part at least sometimes. For whatever reason, occasionally smoking pot makes me lust to do art. If I smoke it too much, it doesn't help, though.... I just become kind of used to it. You know?

It is funny, with the epilogue site, where I keep a blog called the elves attic, I was getting a ton of readers by writing comedy. Their server went down a few weeks ago, and they keep promising it will come back up... Regardless, I lost all my readers in the process, and I don't think anyone knows about this site hardly at all. I miss that feeling of writing something and getting an instant response. Oh, well....