A term I just learned in a novel my daughter is reading, Absolutely Normal Chaos, by Naomi Creech. Sum and substance, interesting term. It is used in the same context as we would use the word “matter” to suggest the overall meaning or summary of an event or circumstance. I might use this term to apply to elements of an essay or presentation. Anyway, I like it, sum and substance.
I find myself reexamining my novel Drum, a Search, still not very certain about where it is headed. However, I am forming a bit of a thesis about how it should be narrated. Uncovering what I can but making use also of certain realities of the time. My recent correspondence with [omitted], the amateur sleuth who investigating an unsolved crime in [omitted], has awakened a new sense of possibility with the story. I’m interested now in pursuing the story through Jade’s eyes but also very consciously through my own. I’m interested in being as up-front with the reader as possible, as this is the best writing that I do.
My idea is to create a protagonist who lives independently from me but who shares the exact same interest in discovering the truth of this disappearance. There are two narrative tracks running side by side, Jade’s and my own. One fictional, one non. Each narrative informs the other with tidbits of ideas and clues. It is here, in this dialog with Jade, that the breadcrumbs are found. It is here that the literal and the emotional become one.
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