The world of THE VALLEN

Borrowed from pbs.org

In the months leading up to the 2016 United States presidential election, I clicked off the news and asked myself: what would America look like if Trump’s wall stood for over a hundred years?

What would you do to challenge that impediment to your movement? Would you try to flee—even if it was your own people who stood up the wall in the first place? Or would you welcome it? Is the wall good? Is the wall bad?

Chapter breaks and how I used them in THE VALLEN

From this amazing site showing a variety of past-present photos

Welp, I'm at the halfway point of proofreading THE VALLEN (like p. 185 in my double-spaced manuscript) and I'm pausing to reflect on why I've organized the chapters in the way that I have.

Essentially:

• Odd-numbered chapters: Essa's past
• Even-numbered chapters: Essa's present

Outlining a blueprint for THE VALLEN

The Wall of Jericho, artist's rendering, more information available here

The power of a blueprint (or outline) for a novel is perhaps best represented in the plot of the novel. (I spoke in a previous post about how Rowling's outlining technique for Harry Potter benefited the page-turning plot of her books...).

Memory spreading its branches through THE VALLEN

Memory interconnected and disconnecting bits falling away

In the beginning of novel development, I tend to research every teensy-weensy little thing. For THE VALLEN, I went over memory and walls and how to build walls, and where and why walls were built, and how memory is stored, the latest neurological science, how technology enhances or impairs our memory, whether all of this translates to knowledge—and if it does—then what kind of knowledge?