I don’t know if this will continue, but there’s a stuffed cow in Book V.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There’s a stuffed cow in Book V partly because of an email I got some months back, but also because, as soon as I got the email, the stuffed cow appeared in the book.\u00a0 At first for no reason.\u00a0 I stared (mentally) at the stuffed cow and it didn’t even look back.\u00a0 It wasn’t a very good stuffed cow.\u00a0 It was big, and badly done, and ugly, and smelled some.\u00a0 WHY was there a stuffed cow in my book?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I understood it had something to do with the impetus of the email, but not what it had to do with the story.<\/p>\n
Then one day it sort of did.\u00a0 But that didn’t go anywhere.\u00a0 A dozen times I almost erased the file with the stuffed cow in it.\u00a0 Stupid stuffed cow.\u00a0 Does not belong here.\u00a0 This is not a funny story.\u00a0\u00a0 Or a story about taxidermy (good or bad) or….anything to do with stuffed cows.\u00a0 There’s a plot problem hiding behind the stuffed cow…I want to ditch the stuffed cow and get on with it.<\/p>\n
But there it was, and some instinct insisted that I not delete the stuffed cow.\u00a0 Time went by.\u00a0 I worked on other chapters.\u00a0 But the part of that chapter that wasn’t about the stuffed cow was important, and needed work, and yet it wouldn’t go.\u00a0 The stuffed cow was in the way.\u00a0\u00a0 The ugly stuffed cow I couldn’t delete, for no reason I could understand.<\/p>\n
Finally, this afternoon, months later, while Pavarotti waxed soulful about having signed up to be a soldier and leaving home on my CD player\u00a0 (Donizetti.\u00a0 “L’Elisir d’Amore”)\u00a0 the chain barring the way fell down.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Suddenly the stuffed cow had a purpose.\u00a0 I distrust the purpose, as I distrusted the stuffed cow when it first appeared, but…it’s there.\u00a0\u00a0 The stuffed cow, in all its ridiculousness, has wormed\u00a0 (shoved?) its way into the story.<\/p>\n
I tell you this now, a terrible spoiler, in one way, because there’s still a chance that the stuffed cow won’t be there when you finally hold Book V in your hands (or the e-reader in your hands with Book V on a screen.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even if the stuffed cow is there, it may be used in a different way.\u00a0 But a stuffed cow is representative of how things sometimes go with my creative process (so-called.)\u00a0 Things appear as I’m writing,\u00a0 and I toss many of them out (plaster rooster?\u00a0 No thanks.\u00a0\u00a0 Pair of bright orange boots with fake silver toe and heel coverings?\u00a0 No thanks.\u00a0 Adorable kitten with a big pink bow?\u00a0 No, thanks.\u00a0\u00a0 Etc.) while others, equally peculiar and unplanned,\u00a0 fit immediately–the puzzle piece I hadn’t known was missing, because it arrived before I’d worked to that point.<\/p>\n
One of these was the puppy in Vatta’s War.\u00a0\u00a0 While I was doing something else (getting Ky outfitted with a really good sidearm and bulletproof vest),\u00a0 one of her less able employees turned around and–to my complete surprise–had a puppy in his hands.\u00a0\u00a0 I knew the puppy had to be there (though not why) and I had to defend the puppy from a very strong suggestion that I should “lose the dog.”\u00a0\u00a0 I had to promise it would bite a bad guy at a critical moment.\u00a0 Which it did, besides having other useful roles to play.<\/p>\n
But a stuffed cow that’s not even a good stuffed cow?\u00a0 Not a toy stuffed cow but a life-sized cowhide over an amateurish framework?<\/p>\n
For a high-five from me and three points…what do you<\/em> think the stuffed cow is doing in Book V?\u00a0\u00a0 Or do you think it won’t be there when you read the book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t know if this will continue, but there’s a stuffed cow in Book V.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There’s a stuffed cow in Book V partly because of an email I got some months back, but also because, as soon as I got the email, the stuffed cow appeared in the book.\u00a0 At first for no reason.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,5],"tags":[62,107],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-the-writing-life","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1729,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions\/1729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}