I've been reading The Strain by Chuck Hogan and it's pretty good. It's a sort of Aliens-Meets-Dracula tale. I was actually scared enough to stop reading it for a day or two, but now I am starting to think it's a little bit ridiculous. I mean, c'mon...an alien-like appendage growing out of someone's mouth? Vampires don't always have to follow the same old trope, by any means, but this book in particular takes all the romanticism, sexuality and symbolism and just kind of turns it into a sci-fi suspense thriller. Chuck Hogan is an excellent writer, but the limits of suspension of disbelief need to be acknowledged here. Just a tiny bit.

That being said, people can write whatever they damn well please, and if the masses love it, they love it. I'm sure Mr. Hogan doesn't mind having a million-dollar-deal with FX to make a series out of his creation.

And that leads me, inevitably, back to my own writing. All the false-starts, the arguing with people at AW...

me: I want to write about time travel
them: but it has to be BELIEVABLE
me: I want to write about a chimera, a person with two people living inside him (not a multiple personality)
them: but you might offend someone.
me: but this is fantasy
them: but you can't do that. it's not medically accurate

...and so on.

So, the suspension of disbelief is a real thing. And of course all readers suspend disbelief, at some point. I wouldn't have finished The Shining, or A Wild Sheep Chase, or a lot of fantasy books if I had felt the tiniest bit betrayed, at the first mention of something fantastical and untrue.

The story just has to make the READER believe it. It doesn't have to actually be TRUE or ACCURATE or anything. That is the art of the process. Making the reader forget he/she is in a story. I would say that with The Strain, it definitely DID make me forget I was reading something untrue, for a little while. But the introduction of an evil being who is infecting people and turning them into aliens...I dunno. Just a little bit too much in the recipe mix. Something. "It's a vampire-no, a virus- no, an ALIEN!..." Ugh.

I realized, I have gotten so stymied in my own writing of the Chimera tale because I can't decide on a lot of things:
1. Is this a chimera or is it a multiple personality? Because there are elements of both in it. I've borrowed heavily from multiple personality stories as a way of understanding my villain...
2. Is this a fantasy or is it something that could really happen?
3. Was this 'chimera' a part of the protagonist from his conception, or was he CREATED by an inciting incident, namely the abuse he suffered at the hands of his drunken father?
4. Is the chimera's dark personality evil, or is the protagonist/antagonist just a misunderstood victim?
5. What is the conclusion of the book? Will the chimera be destroyed, restrained, or 'cured'?
6. Does the 'weaker' personality know about the 'evil' personality, or is he unaware of what is really going on?
7. Is the chimera's daughter a good character or a bad character?

I think I really don't know how to answer some of these questions. So it's clear, finally, why I can't ever finish writing this. I don't know where I'm going. That's why.

Heather