Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Boss of the Bozo Branch

Boss of the Bozo Branch

I dreamed last night that I was employed by an organization that had two branches, one for the productive staff and the other for staff that were employed for other purposes. I was one of those in the second category. My job was to come to work each day and look busy. There was a machine I was expected to turn on and from offices around the globe were summaries of all the dirty laundry that was taking place in each of the branch offices . I was expected to categorize and compile these for the amusement of the Corporate Executives.

While I was in this mind set I had a conversation with this distinguished looking “Veteran” and he explained to me the difference between writing a screen play or stage play and writing a Novel.

A stage play or screen play is carried by the dialogue of the actors. The world of the action is carried in set or cinematography. Background is provided by the chorus or flashbacks, and character development is portrayed in the body language of the players.

In a Novel on the other hand, he explained, all these must be provided concurrently like a juggler keeping ten-pins in the air. A paragraph commonly contains a line of dialogue, a description of setting, some backstory, foreshadowing, and expressions of emotion and senses.

Thus while a stage or screen play can focus on dialogue, a Novel must be written with this concurrency in mind. I am trying to do this very thing as I seek to rewrite Essence and the Stones and the exercise is giving me fits. As I mentioned in earlier blogs I come from a stage play focus and like to write a lot of dialogue. For me keeping all those things in mind at the same time is a challenge. However, I am not alone.

Anyway in this dream the branch chief got fired and I found out I was his replacement. I was accused of using my relationship with the CEO get his job. Can you imagine… sandbagging someone to get a no nothing job. It was a depressing dream. I was glad to snap suddenly awake.

Ever since the lab results came back and said I was allergic to cats, Felix has been wanting me to pet her. The more I ignore her the more insistent she becomes. Maybe if I start ignoring my wife the same thing will happen.