“I myself, as I’m writing, don’t know who did it. The readers and I are on the same ground. When I start to write a story, I don’t know the conclusion at all and I don’t know what’s going to happen next. If there is a murder case as the first thing, I don’t know who the killer is. I write the book because I would like to find out. If I know who the killer is, there’s no purpose to writing the story.”
― Haruki Murakami
Expect the unexpected. That’s today’s theme. Just when fit looks like it’s about to hit the shan – with everything nicely falling apart on the way – life has a Ha-Ha-Ha-funny way of swooping in and providing a much-needed set of paddles and life jacket (remember, ’cause you’re up a river and all).
Alternatively, just when things look all la-dee-da, peaches and freaking cream, rainbows sprouting out of frigging manholes, you get whacked over the head by a 2×4.
Boom! Eat it!
Even novelists, the grand puppeteers of the world, don’t understand how everything will unfold in their made-up universes of Plato-like, cave-dwelling prisoners. Theirs is to observe the flames on the wall, take their cues from human nature, and then pen the next sentence. Then a paragraph. And then a page and chapter and – if they’re lucky – a full-length story. If they’re really lucky, they’ll still be conscious and breathing when the last word is down on paper, all the answers (hopefully) answered somewhere along the way.
When the unexpected does – not if – happens, keep in mind something that the great Joseph Conrad once wrote: “Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”
— fin
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Richard H. Harris 