"The question hung there like an insect caught in a spiderweb, suspended in the fog of his brain." Great opening metaphor. I like how you have spun the thread of suspense from the first sentence through the suspended time, via the sense of levity and suspended prognosis/treatment to the ending in suspense for the reader ~ where Paul himself is 'like an insect caught in a spiderweb'.
And I was really stuck (lol there it is again) on the ending of this chapter - but couldn’t figure it out by publishing time. You’ve just given me the key to fleshing it out in the future. 🤩
Wonderful! That's how it should be... I think we are all hung up on the idea of: "we should 'know what we are writing' before putting pen to paper (or hitting our keyboard)." More often than not, this is not the case. Ideas come in the process of writing. More ideas come in the process of other people reading. More ideas come when the writer gets a manuscript back with comments from an editor etc.
That thread running through a piece or story ~ that's really important ~ and fascinating to watch when it happens, as if by itself, in the process of writing. That might be the reason why story writing is also called 'spinning a yarn'.
This is my favourite chapter so far. You’ve got me question8mg the reliability of the narrator really nicely. I really felt a sort of spiralling descent into madness throughout the first half of this.
Aha. I’m finally making my way back in time through your chapters, the building blocks to your hard-earned revelations to come… and I’m seeing all the parallels. Especially appreciating the confusing “trauma response”/“out of body” experience where you’re suddenly able to experience the pain from a completely different perspective. “The lead actor had forgotten he was in a movie. The lead actor had forgotten there even was a movie.” I wonder if this really was a response our brains had to extreme suffering, a splitting off if you will, but then in some beautiful way, also became our salvation?
Welcome to the past! What a cool way to look at it - the trauma response being a protective “splitting off” from previous reality perspective, with its very “blank-slatedness” as potential for reintegration..
"The question hung there like an insect caught in a spiderweb, suspended in the fog of his brain." Great opening metaphor. I like how you have spun the thread of suspense from the first sentence through the suspended time, via the sense of levity and suspended prognosis/treatment to the ending in suspense for the reader ~ where Paul himself is 'like an insect caught in a spiderweb'.
Looking forward to chapter 5 🧡🙏
Thank you! I’d written this chapter several years ago and only just before I posted this morning did I find and accentuate that common “thread.”
And I was really stuck (lol there it is again) on the ending of this chapter - but couldn’t figure it out by publishing time. You’ve just given me the key to fleshing it out in the future. 🤩
Wonderful! That's how it should be... I think we are all hung up on the idea of: "we should 'know what we are writing' before putting pen to paper (or hitting our keyboard)." More often than not, this is not the case. Ideas come in the process of writing. More ideas come in the process of other people reading. More ideas come when the writer gets a manuscript back with comments from an editor etc.
That thread running through a piece or story ~ that's really important ~ and fascinating to watch when it happens, as if by itself, in the process of writing. That might be the reason why story writing is also called 'spinning a yarn'.
This is my favourite chapter so far. You’ve got me question8mg the reliability of the narrator really nicely. I really felt a sort of spiralling descent into madness throughout the first half of this.
Aha. I’m finally making my way back in time through your chapters, the building blocks to your hard-earned revelations to come… and I’m seeing all the parallels. Especially appreciating the confusing “trauma response”/“out of body” experience where you’re suddenly able to experience the pain from a completely different perspective. “The lead actor had forgotten he was in a movie. The lead actor had forgotten there even was a movie.” I wonder if this really was a response our brains had to extreme suffering, a splitting off if you will, but then in some beautiful way, also became our salvation?
Welcome to the past! What a cool way to look at it - the trauma response being a protective “splitting off” from previous reality perspective, with its very “blank-slatedness” as potential for reintegration..