Working On The Studio

Note: This blog was originally posted on December 11th, 2014.

Every now and again I feel like a break from creating an entire future for my characters to live in. For a change I switch to The Studio, a novel set for 2015 release, that takes place in the everyday world.

Yes, my first manuscript that isn’t a genre outing. (General/literary fiction books will publish under Gil E. Liane the same way Iain Banks used Iain M. Banks to verify styles.)

The flow is completely different and I’m appreciating that. I wanted to stretch my mind a little. Give the sentences a different kind of workout.

For starters, the core themes. Speculative fiction and science fiction look at societal concerns as much as personal issues. Many different elements are wrapped together; you have to craft them carefully and work toward a whole that doesn’t jar.

With general fiction, slightly less world building is involved, in the sense you can use the outline of a society already in place.

In regards to these two novels, there is less responsibility in terms of social commentary, when working on The Studio, than there was when working on Sound, making this outing a totally different process to wrap my head around.

The Studio focuses more on people, on connections and communication. And of course, creativity: art, music, writing. And maybe the creativity involved when building relationships between people? That’s an art unto itself…

Sound had different things to say. The Studio is the result of a day spent thinking about the power of charisma. How it changes our responses, and our behavior.

Beauty is one thing, and as a culture we celebrate the power of aesthetics (and the associated pitfalls).

Charisma is different. More difficult to define yet its impact has shaped lives, even history. Charisma is a drug that our souls often succumb to, a drug in the form of a person.

But to be clear, this story isn’t “large”; it’s more intimate. One woman amidst a sea of charismatic characters. I really like that idea. I like the idea of a protagonist trying to hold firm against the sway of charisma in multiple forms. Watching it swirl and shimmer between people, or a clique, affecting so many threads and shaping so many lives.

I want the story to be locked in one building, the same way it’s locked into a group of people. The feel I’m aiming for is intimate; closed off, even. And of course, throw some chaos in the mix, because chaos and charisma often go hand in hand.

Here is an excerpt that I like (in a vey rough form, mind you).

“Sometimes you have to laugh otherwise you’ll go mad with the beauty of life. Not from it, with it.” He reaches across to tap my skull. The slither of fabric and the scent of cigarettes cross more than space; my idea of him slips and slides. Threatens to change shape.

“The beauty of life will reach inside your head.” His hand waves, a strange, extravagant gesture somewhere between a hesitant flutter and a graceful glide. “Spin your mind. Endless directions, till something breaks. That’s the point.”

A wisp of my hair is drawn into flight, drifting between his fingers. “Why?”

“Why?” The question seems to throw him, and the strands float free. “So it can play with the pretty fragments.”

Watching him sip vodka in the candlelight, I have to ask, “Is that what you’re afraid of? Falling for the beauty of life?”

“No, we broke up,” he says, laughing, and in the wild sound I hear shattered pieces that spun free a long time ago.

…That’s my thoughts for today, and me back to the keyboard x

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