I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Got a Clue

Little Bird Blue made a comment that I should continue the "Hands" story bone myself. So I've been thinking about it. I think I know a story for it, probably less than 4000 words, stream of consciousness, first-person POV, heavy prose. It'll be a very difficult feat for me to pull off, but what's life if you don't stretch. It's going to be an intentionally unreliable narrator, and I intend to make it difficult for the reader to know whom the POV is talking to, which will become part of the story (the confusion of whom they're talking to, not whom they're talking to).

5 comments:

Todd Wheeler said...

Sounds like a challenge. I'm sure you're up for it.

And thanks for the post on Vonnegut. Nicely done. I have a feeling I'll remember I read it here first.

Steve Buchheit said...

I haven't tried an unreliable narrator yet. I've done some that haven't told the whole truth, but not one that intentionally lied. So this is going to be hard. Plus, the trick is to keep the reader guessing whom the narrator is talking to without dumping the story, and making that confusion work (right now I'm thinking it will be a progression of possible second characters which also tells a story of what is happening to the narrator).

Camille Alexa said...

I'm glad you're revisiting this, Steve. I have a feeling it'll pay off.

Steve Buchheit said...

thanks, LBB. I still need to figure out what the person did (it will be criminal) or how they did it. Of course, murder is the first thought, but since it's so obvious, I want to come up with something else.

Steve Buchheit said...

(writer's thing) or I could start typing and let the narrator tell me.