HP Lovecraft

I rewrote the scene where Anika reunites with Risa in the marketplace, also when she gets the poison. I like it but know it needs more work. Anika's reactions to what they say are too sudden and seem to switch from one to the other to the other to the next like ratchets. Still, my idea that just before she asks for the poison it's given to her because Tumba, the root doctor, knew with 6th sense that she'd need it worked well. The interplay between her and Marcus worked well. Marcus is shaping up to be a good leading man. I didn't anticipate or try very hard for this character to develop. It's almost mystical when this happens, like the character is writing himself into being.

Then I watched a documentary -- Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown. HP Lovecraft lived at the turn of the century and hit his stride as a horror/sci-fi writer in the 1920s and 30s. What an imagination. He refused to work and he was right to do that. Out of necessity to keep a job he might have become a well-balanced, thoughtful, practical person. It would have killed his imagination. All his focus would have switched from phantasmagoric beings wrapping the earth in their tentacles to getting along with the guy on his team. I've never been very interested in Lovecraft because his monsters are outside threats to our world and my interest is in the monster within you or the guy down the street. But the documentary showed how Lovecraft's fantastic beings were metaphors for the monster Lovecraft felt himself to be. He spent most of his life in self-imposed exile - kept himself locked in a tower, so to speak. His mother loved him but told him growing up he was hideous. He believed it. I noted two stories I want to start on: The Rats in the Wall and The Color Out of Space. One thing the documentary reminded me of was that imagination is more important than anything. Literally. Period. Forget publishing, reaching your readers, marketing your name. If what you're putting out is the same plastic, form-poured utensil the other guys are selling, what's the point? It'll be fun for you -- that's a point. But ultimately, if you're broke and obscure but your creations are unlike anything anyone's written, I think in cosmic terms you're better. I'd rather be the one with the outlandish, astounding monster. More often than not, I'm congratulating myself for successfully working with that one dumbass on my team.