First Good Look at Claire

Lots more outlining done today. I have enough plotted out to carry me through about six chapters now, and I've settled on alternating first person narratives. That should be interesting. I couldn't get a thing done at work today on account of being too absorbed in my new project, which I'm just going to call Reach for the time being. So Project Reach is underway. I have some serious research to do, which may require a trip up to B-town to hang with the CogSci peeps for a day or so. I'm still hoping to hook up with someone this fall/winter to give me a tour of the labs so I can get the 'feel' of what I'll be narrating.

I'm learning more about Claire. I wanted her to be dark and substantial in appearance (much like myself) but she isn't. I got a good look at her today and she's rather slight, has thin-ish titian hair that falls in waves when she lets it be, which she doesn't. She prefers to keep it braided and pins the braids up in a coil. She's got green eyes and a healthy sense of shame owing to her voyeuristic tendencies. I wanted her to be more deeply flawed than she is. I wanted her to be more passive. But she's not. And I can't make her be who she's not. She exists now and I've got to let her act on her own behalf though she's ostensibly my creation. I've also decided that Claire and MarLo should be roommates. And I've birthed a new character, a catalyst of sorts, who is to draw off of Carlisle Cullen and perhaps a bit of Dr. Maturin. I haven't settle on a name for him yet, but he will likely be a Shockey or a Feigner. I'm leaning towards Feigner at the moment. I've also determined that David's mother is a journalist who enjoys a quiet life in the city center (which city is to be determined) having moved downtown from the suburbs after sending her only son off to college to stave off loneliness. She rarely enters the social scene, but likes observing it from her perch and takes comfort from the lively nightlife enveloping her.

This Saturday, I'm planning on holing myself up at my desk to formally set down my outline. I used to do this in PowerPoint, but I think I'll format it in a Google Notebook.