I worked on OT, tonight. The story is filling itself in and working out its structure in some surprising ways, to me. And Jake's language has simplified to a modern version of hard-boiled. Mr. cool, calm and collected...he thinks. But moments pop in to show he's trying to fool himself as much as anybody else.
Something else that's working on Jake is his time in prison and the secrets he's keeping. His uncle's disappearance shakes up his ability to ignore the past, and it begins to bubble up in ways I didn't expect.
It all ties into a theme that seems to want to present itself -- that we can never really know someone, no matter how close we are to them...even ourselves. This is a bit close to the bone, for me...because there are aspects of my life I've shared with no one. At all. And probably never will. And that...to me, that indicates a serious lack of trust. Or the ability to trust. I'm not sure which.
But I came up with a line for Mira, Jake's stepmother, to share with him. "Only a fool trusts everyone, and only a coward trusts no one." I'm in both camps, which seems to be a contradiction...but isn't, really.
I will say, Jake is building into someone anybody could trust. Maybe he's becoming too good. Too idealized on my pages. Nobody's perfect, and he's willing to not be. But I haven't worked him out completely, yet.
If I ever can.
Something else that's working on Jake is his time in prison and the secrets he's keeping. His uncle's disappearance shakes up his ability to ignore the past, and it begins to bubble up in ways I didn't expect.
It all ties into a theme that seems to want to present itself -- that we can never really know someone, no matter how close we are to them...even ourselves. This is a bit close to the bone, for me...because there are aspects of my life I've shared with no one. At all. And probably never will. And that...to me, that indicates a serious lack of trust. Or the ability to trust. I'm not sure which.
But I came up with a line for Mira, Jake's stepmother, to share with him. "Only a fool trusts everyone, and only a coward trusts no one." I'm in both camps, which seems to be a contradiction...but isn't, really.
I will say, Jake is building into someone anybody could trust. Maybe he's becoming too good. Too idealized on my pages. Nobody's perfect, and he's willing to not be. But I haven't worked him out completely, yet.
If I ever can.
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