Unpacking

I haven't been over here in a while, because I haven't been working very much on the novel. My job and other responsibilities are interfering with my head time-- so what else is new-- but I am learning not to be so distressed over it.

Today is Saturday and I have three things on my whole agenda: work on the novel, clean up the bathroom, and go to the gym for an hour. I think that's manageable.

I have been sort of unhappy with the work I have done in the last six months. I know that part of that is my other issues peeping through and another part is that I worked three years on the first 200 pages, so of course the recent ones are going to seem thin in comparison. To make matters worse, I am teaching a literature class this term so I am doing close readings of really masterful works which are really showing me that I am not getting deep enough into my own stories.

I feel like these recent pages are like Sarah Palin in the debate. Deep enough to fake it, but not truly layered.

Anyway, on to this paragraph which opens a chapter.

I’ve been driving since I was twelve years old. The day after my sixteenth birthday, I’d taken my drivers exam in the Lincoln and parallel parked it like a professional. The examiner congratulated my father and Raleigh. “This little girl drives like a grown man.” At the time, it was one of one of the happiest days of my life. At 9 am, I’d been to the orthodontist who used a special pair of pliers to remove y braces. At noon, we were off to the DMV where I navigated the course while running my tongue over my smooth, straight teeth. By 5pm, I was driving Daddy and Raleigh to the Galleria for dinner at The Upper Crust, where we stuffed ourselves on designer pizza, bread sticks, and cheesecake. Raleigh slipped the water a $20 in exchange for letting me order champagne sweetened with grenadine. Daddy ended up driving home while I rode in the backseat, laid out with my head in Uncle Raleigh’s bony lap.

This morning when I took a look at it, I realized that A) the timeline is too crazy for a single paragraph and B) there is a lot to unpack in the first sentence. "I've been driving since I was twelve years old."

So I got up, made a little breakfast, and thought about the circumstances under which Chaurisse learned to drive so young. And, lo and behold, her father's back-story started revealing itself. Her dad is a chauffeur and he loves cars, but I have never thought of why. It occurred to me that when he is taking his twelve year old daughter out to learn to drive, he would tell her why driving is important and reveal more of his past.

So, that's today's plan.