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Author in the Schools, meeting with Inga
The author in the schools gig went well. I visited 5 classrooms, talked for 50 minutes in each, and my throat is killing me, but the students were impressive. Much more lively and interested, and with much more intelligent and imaginative responses than the students whose classroom I visited last year.
After I'd finished that, I got together with Inga, my architect expert. As I mentioned, my back brain has been freezing up and refusing to let me write sections where Jack and Solveig interact in the work place. I needed some basic information first. Critical, well-timed research can really jog a stuck story out of a rut. (The trick is not to fall into the trap of doing too much research, avoiding writing because you tell yourself you have to read "just one more" book--and then another and then another . . .)
Anyway, besides giving me lots of helpful info re: the project time line, the conversation resolved one critical decision I'd been hesitating over: should Jack be another architect, or the structural engineer? I know that he crosses swords with Solveig by making some kind of a change and maneuvering her into accepting it against her will. The role of the structural engineer, however, is conservative. As Inga said, what the S.E. is generally doing is explaining to the head-in-the-clouds architects why their lovely design can't work. So it makes more sense for him to be another architect. "Plenty of architects have enormous egos," Inga said wryly, so that sounds right.
I looked at the writer's notebook of her daughter, Nadine, and complimented her on some of her poetry experiments. Inga gave me several books, overview on architecture stuff, and a pile of professional trade magazines to take home with me, and told me to call anytime with further questions.
*Happy sigh* Friendly, helpful experts are worth their weight in gold.
Cheers,
Peg
After I'd finished that, I got together with Inga, my architect expert. As I mentioned, my back brain has been freezing up and refusing to let me write sections where Jack and Solveig interact in the work place. I needed some basic information first. Critical, well-timed research can really jog a stuck story out of a rut. (The trick is not to fall into the trap of doing too much research, avoiding writing because you tell yourself you have to read "just one more" book--and then another and then another . . .)
Anyway, besides giving me lots of helpful info re: the project time line, the conversation resolved one critical decision I'd been hesitating over: should Jack be another architect, or the structural engineer? I know that he crosses swords with Solveig by making some kind of a change and maneuvering her into accepting it against her will. The role of the structural engineer, however, is conservative. As Inga said, what the S.E. is generally doing is explaining to the head-in-the-clouds architects why their lovely design can't work. So it makes more sense for him to be another architect. "Plenty of architects have enormous egos," Inga said wryly, so that sounds right.
I looked at the writer's notebook of her daughter, Nadine, and complimented her on some of her poetry experiments. Inga gave me several books, overview on architecture stuff, and a pile of professional trade magazines to take home with me, and told me to call anytime with further questions.
*Happy sigh* Friendly, helpful experts are worth their weight in gold.
Cheers,
Peg
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