So I was eating dinner with my son Benny last night — frozen French fries and cold rotisserie chicken, hey, I was tired — and he asked me to read my Stealth Novel to him.
I've mentioned little bits about the novel since starting it in November, mostly to explain why I was tapping on a laptop in the corner after work while he plays video games. I update him every so often, telling him how the main character fell down a well, another has escaped a bad guy and a third character thinks he's corn. (Seriously, he has to be dragged in from the cornfield every night, shouting “Don’t break me from my stalk untimely!”) Benny thinks it's all very weird and regularly asks for updates.
So I started reading it to him and now he's making suggestions. My bad guy has to take a Swamp Test and Benny is helping me decide what this will involve. (Apparently pfu pfu birds, alligators and piranhas are essential components.)
I fretted a little a bit about this, because, well, I like to fret. I didn't think it would be a problem for Benny, since I skim over the blood and creepiness and sex stuff. Plus, it's good for a kid to see people do creative things. But I worried that perhaps it would screw up the writing a little bit. I mean, when I started this novel, it wasn't aimed at the seven-year-old kid audience. Would I start censoring myself and ruin its spooky, politically involved and somewhat disturbing tone?
But then I wrote a long scene in the bad guy's tent that's so um ... unsuitable that the only part I can read to Benny is where the two characters left through a melting wall. So I think I'm okay there.
I still plan to include the Swamp Test, though.
Updated Word Count: 33,000 words. Yay yay!
March 8: 36,396 words. Yay!
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