Update on Ace of Arts: Beginning of Chapter 6

I didn't get to write any more of my novel this week (so far) because I had some really weird busy stuff happening at work and then on top of that . . . you know. Steven stuff.

I forget how much stuff I got written this week, but it did what I wanted it to do.

So I'm gonna talk about cityscape scenes.

My character does this thing--so far only on Page 1 of every even chapter--where she views an imaginary city, and it later becomes one of her drawings. She interacts with these cityscape scenes in a very peculiar way: mostly she's just an observer, but she does act upon the environment without it being clear that "she" is actually there, and these scenes are written in present tense with a detached narrator. (There's never any "I" in them.) My character has opinions about these city environments and her thoughts translate into drawings later, but what's also interesting is that she'll incorporate things she wants to be there into her drawings and if she goes back to those imaginary cities those things are there. It's like the imaginary cities can contribute to her real life, and her real life can contribute to her cities.

It's really, really interesting to write. It's a little bit like Finding Mulligan, which is my book about a girl who lives one life when she's awake and a different one when she's asleep (but she believes she is two different people in those different places).

In the latest chapter opening, I gave her a weird clean slate (after two other chapters established what she usually looks at in imaginary cityscapes). I'm going to spend the next few even-chapter openings cluttering this place up while she's experimenting with her art. (This is kind of spawned by her teacher telling her she needs more than one kind of piece in her portfolio if she's going to apply to art school, so she's kind of in panic mode looking for a way to translate her usual art-making techniques into different products. It's going to end in mixed results.)

This week's partial chapter included a page of that stuff and then some more family dynamics featuring Megan hanging out with Dyane and Dyane's boyfriend Corey. I'm not done with the chapter though. I want to do another school scene with Brady. It's Chapter 6 already. This important relationship needs to get rolling.

Eh so that's it for now.