The Real Lifesaver and Table Manners

As I'm posting these chapters, I'm wondering... is this pool party at River’s enough of a slow burn for you? Six chapters so far, and two more to come before this scene finally wraps up. Is that… too much? I mean, I suppose it’s my story and I can tell it the way I want to, and sure there are entire movies set inside a phone booth, so devoting several chapters to one scene is probably neither rule breaking nor ground breaking. 

But you know, I just don’t want the story to drag on. I hope it doesn’t. 

Anyway, these two chapters are what I would consider a bit transitional. In The Real Lifesaver, Cara wakes out of her daydream and actually has to deal with Willow’s swinging proposition, still waiting for her on the other side of her daydream. As that uncomfortable conversation unfolds, we find out that the vote is not unanimously in favor, and Cara is relieved of the responsibility for having the final say when Styles takes that upon himself. 

Then River saves them all. I like the idea that with Griffin and Styles heroing it up in the previous chapters causing all kinds of mayhem, River is the real lifesaver of the evening, bringing everyone back together for his BBQ dinner that he’s been working on all day. 

Table Manners is meant to be a more pleasant mood shift to break the tension from the swinging proposition. There is some expositional dialogue about the nature of creativity and how it can mean having a double life – devoting yourself to your art can take you away from your family. Not to give shit away, but this is a bit of foreshadowing (give shit away, lol like anyone is reading this). 

There is some discussion about the creator’s struggle to overcome the fear of sharing their work with others, with the need to avoid rejection dominating the need to connect through art. This is where things get a bit “meta” I think, as far as how I feel about sharing my writing, and how other creators might feel about sharing their work. I want readers who are also creators to not only empathize with Cara’s fear, but relate to it in a way that only they can. She is the archetype for that fear, I think. 

Finally, we learn more about Cara’s own personal writing projects that she never pursued beyond the drafting stage, and this sparks something in her. She doesn’t know what yet, but it’s the beginning of something. Again, not to give anything away, but this marks the beginning of her character development in the story.

There is also another meta angle to this chapter, in that each of the personal projects Cara describes are things I have actually written myself. Most of them exist only as drafts, but I did self-publish (in print form only) a couple of the comic/graphic novel ones to absolute zero fanfare, acclaim or modicum of interest. Not exactly the dopamine blast I was hoping for. I guess by inserting them into this story, I’m trying to give them a second life, even if they are only mentioned in passing. (Did I say in an earlier post that I’m not Cara and she’s not me? LOL. I may need to reconsider that assertion). 

And with that, the final two chapters of the pool party scene (and Act I) are now forthcoming.