When I first came up with the idea of writing this novel, I had originally planned to start writing it on August 1. But my brother came down from Alaska to stay with me and my girlfriend, Donna, for a while before he had to put on an art show for the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce in September, so I chose to spend some time with him instead of starting this novel on time. He is still here, but he's working on some drawings and pastels, so I have time to get started. I also had to work some overtime at the hotel where I work while I’m going to school at the University of Texas in Dallas here in Richardson, because the relief night auditor decided not to show up on Friday and Saturday, which gave me less time to visit with my brother while he was here. Oh well. Nonetheless, I've decided to start now, and it's better to have started a few days late than to put off the novel for a whole year so I can start on August 1. Which assumes nothing will happen then to prevent me from beginning the novel on August 1, 2012.
But let's get back to the novel. To be honest, I have no idea what this novel is going to be about. I don't have any characters, story line, or plot in mind. I don't even have a theme. The only plan I do have is to write this novel from August 1, 2011 to July 31, 2012, and write no more. Which is why it's important to get it started as soon as possible.
The reason I have time to write it now is not only because my brother is drawing, but because I have the day off and my brother and I have returned from Austin, where we spent the day looking through galleries, hoping to find one appropriate for the type of pastels and paintings he does. We think we found several galleries willing to take his works. Now he has to get some work done and make slides of them to send to the galleries so they can decide if they want to show his works.
All of this makes me think one of my characters could be an artist. Perhaps I could make him avant-garde or something shocking. The only problem with having a painter as a character is I have to come up with different things he will have painted and describe them to you. That is more difficult than it seems, because how do you really describe a painting? I mean really describe a painting. Unless you give a detailed description of the brush strokes, most modern paintings are hard to describe with words alone. That's why we've come up with different terms to describe different styles. If I say something is impressionist or cubist, most people know what I am talking about. But what if the style is something new? It becomes very difficult to describe a new style of painting short of describing exact brush strokes. You have to see it to know what I'm talking about. And how do you describe something abstract? Abstract paintings come in several types, and the term abstract is itself abstract enough to prevent precise definitions from being possible. So I don't want to make him a painter, though I can relate to the way he thinks.
Perhaps I should come up with a name for the main character first, then decide what or who he is. Perhaps I will call him Michel. I know that is the French spelling, but I've been heavily influenced by the French novelists, Victor Hugo and Andre Gide in particular. I've also had some influence from Andre Breton, especially with his idea of automatic writing. In fact, that's what I'm using now: the idea of automatic writing. With automatic writing, you sit and start writing whatever comes into your head, and if a story comes about, then that's well and good. If not, then according to Breton, that's good too, perhaps better. I disagree. I do think there needs to be a story. Otherwise you won't be able to keep people's interest for long, and that's what we novelists have to do, after all, is keep your interest from beginning to end.
Considering that Gide is such an influence, and I'm reading his novel The Counterfeiters, which is about a novelist, maybe I should make Michel a writer as well. Many novelists have made their main characters novelists or writers. It's easier to write about writing because words can and do describe words very well.
But right now Donna is calling me to come see something on T.V., so I'm going to stop writing for a while. At least my main character has a name.
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