I probably added the equivalent of five chapters and 20,000 words to the story...all to help build Brendan's journey into a quiet shore of gentle waves, but with riptide sneaking beneath the surface. I know that's a bit grandiose, but I feel entitled to it, right now. There is not one page of that long-form synopsis that is without commentary, and all the blank backs of the pages have directions on where to rearrange things or entire moments to add in.
Meaning I'm doing a page-one rewrite of this volume, right down to finding some better chapter headings.
I think the most important thing these notes did was to remind me that Brendan handles trouble by fixing things. Joanna even mentions it in Derry. It's how he maintains a form of control in his life. That's partly why, when chaos hit him at the end of Volume One, and there was nothing he could do...nothing he was allowed to do to make it better...he broke free of the real world to give himself time to fix himself.
I'd sort of lost track of that in NWFO, to an extent, but found a way back to it and will work that in, more. He already fixes his Montessa motorbike so it's better than new...but then he finds an even bigger project to help him deal with his mother's illness and conflicting emotions about it. He thinks she hates him and he's both sorry she's ill but also relieved and feels guilty over that relief.
It doesn't help that he's not Brendan Kinsella in Houston; he's Brennan McGabbhin. So his repairs are also a way for him to keep in contact with who he really is and not lose himself in an identity his uncle is forcing him to maintain.
I dunno if that makes sense, but I'm embarking on at least another 7 rewrites of this book. My hope is it will by the end of the last one.
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