I’ve decided to split up my Writing Journal entries into two parts. Part the first, where I write about my own writing thoughts, will still be called Writing Journal. Part the second, where I react to something that Nikki has brought up as an issue in my writing, will be called Editor’s Note.

Rewriting the Remembrance, from 13 May

If a scouting party is easily defeated, or, I guess, defeated at all by Schuler alone, it’s not much of a threat. Even if he had the help of a hastily-assembled crack commando team, civilians would dismiss the threat as defeatable – nothing to worry about. After all, if they can be defeated once, they can be defeated again. There would be no cause to rally together as a community, no “Them” to define an “Us” against.  Okay, if the “Them” isn’t the Locusts, who could it be?

Reality shifting is a possibility. It’s come up a great deal in the first two chapters. Could Schuler – the entire Homeland – be formed by the fever dreams of a drunk, homeless Vietnam veteran?

If Schuler is a way to express teenage angst about father figures (don’t ask), it’s important to consider who he is to be now, because changing how he came about will change who he is at a fundamental level. His motivations will change. Perhaps his reactions will change as well.

If Schuler modified reality, there would be plenty of justified paranoia. A threat would lurk around every corner, just waiting to strike. People would be being followed by lurkers in bushes, behind corners, on rooftops. Lives would constantly be in danger; the civilians would need to be protected at all costs. Only with his demented fantasy made flesh, given reality, will Schuler be able to regain his agency and interact with the world around him constructively.

Who should the enemy be? Viet Cong? Urban gangs? Corrupted military pencil-pushers and those who were gullible enough to be led by them? Could the Locusts figure in? Could he hallucinate about the real, actual enemy? How would that work?