I am trying to write something that’s literary, but I have no idea what it means to be literary or what qualifies as a literary novel.

Let me introduce you to my personal Lord and Savior:

TVTropes.org, when you absolutely, positively want to spend a whole afternoon doing nothing productive.

I typed in literary fiction and got a bunch of useful references. What was even better – I got some ideas. I am trying to write something that is literary (or so I hope) and with that in mind, I am reading up on the source material – Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs. I think this explains it well enough:

The main female character in the original books is blind, and it’s a cliché I want to avoid. It’s not that I can’t write blind people – under different circumstances, I’d revel in the chance to layer on descriptions without visuals cues. However, I need to stay true to some of the circumstances of the novel. The source novel has the main female lead, named Dea (“goddess”) is blind. She can’t see the main male lead’s disfiguring scars.

How do I change this? I want to keep the flavor – the FMC doesn’t see the scars, but the personality and falls in love with that.

This is one of the reasons why I love writing. Giving myself a problem and finding a solution.

Ladies and gentlemen – please allow me to introduce you to the wacky world of prosopagnosia. Also called “face blindness” (the word comes from the Greek words for ‘face’ and ‘no wisdom’), it is the inability of the person who suffers with this to recognize or even remember faces. I’m currently trying to find people who have this condition so I can get the finer points on it, but she gets to be “blind” and keep the gist of her story while I’m not hamstringing myself when writing her.

As I do research for this – reading Victor Hugo’s work, hunting down a copy of the movie and working on an outline in my head – I’m also working on Nanowrimo. I made air quotes when I typed ‘Nanowrimo’ because worked isn’t really the best word to use. I procrastinated over Nanowrimo. Yeah, that’s better. I’m a day behind on the word count, but we’re not even halfway through the month. I can make it up.

Stop laughing. All of you.

I can do this. I’m still enthralled with the story and the challenge of writing a sweet romance while not making the FMC too onerous or unlikeable. I’ll have it out before Christmas. The hardest part will be trying to find a place to make a couple of custom d20s for me on the cheap. I might have to hit up some friends.

Last, but not least – I was interviewed as part of a male writer’s panel last Saturday. It was on Facebook Live, so I don’t know if it will be hosted on a podcast, or site. When it is, I will let you all know.

Thank you for stopping by. If you’re interested in my writing, or the writing of good friends, check out the links on the left. I also accept kofi.com donations. Hope y’all have a good day.