Parallels

After writing my pitch, and seeing that much of what I have so far on the novel no longer works, I was disappointed. But I'm not sure what I was expecting. When I was learning to design houses, I had to make a lot of feeble attempts before I got the hang of form, proportion, proper use of building materials, and the ability to put all that and much more into a set of drawings from which the project could be built.

Why would it be any different writing a novel? There are a lot of parallels, actually. A house needs a foundation, you could think of that as the backstory. Then the house needs a skeletal frame. You could think of that as the plot structure. That skeletal frame is determined by the style combined with accepted building conventions. You could think of style as genre and building conventions as tried-and-true key elements needed for a market ready book.

In my architectural life, it took time, but eventually, I was able to conceive of a three dimensional building that met the client's needs, both practical and aesthetic. And before that, I learned to make a dress. One of my architecture teachers told me if I could sew a dress, I could build a building, because the common denominator is understanding sequence. That's something to think about. I have a feeling there's a parallel there as well.

More later.