Now comes the fun...

I need to figure out a way to make Darian's Point compelling and scary and meaningful, but as of right now, I don't know exactly what to do to achieve that. I know the outline. The structure. The characters. Who does what to whom and why...all except for the why it matters part of the project.

I know it does have a reason to become a tale...but right now, no one is sharing that with me. There's the basic moral attitude of cheating on your spouse is bad and causes problems way beyond anything you can imagine. Not very interesting, really. You can get that in any romance novel.

There's the idea that a slavish devotion to honor before death is not the same as doing what is right. But that seems contrary to what a story like this is aiming for. Especially since the rest of the book will show that Caoimhín's death brings a sort of horrible peace to his clan, giving them the opportunity to rebuild their lives after years of war and destruction.

With A Place of Safety, it took me years to find the meaning in it. That Brendan was just a lad who wanted to live his life...but the world would not let him. Even then, it took me writing the whole of the story to finally accept that he was fighting to not let history rule his life. I was going to have him join the IRA and commit a murder at the end, as a sort of surrender to the inevitable.

But after I wrote it, the whole moment felt hollow. Then he slowly...deliberately...dragged me back to show how he did not want to surrender to that sort of evil. He found a path he could take that would let him be who he is, and would protect his family. A quiet path separate from the slaughter. Not perfect, but by his choice.

That was hard to get to. I'd rather not have to go through that, again. This is a gothic/horror story...and maybe I'm attaching too much importance to it. But I'm going to be working on this beast for a couple years, and I want it to have some meaning to it.

I'm just that grandiose, in nature.