On writer's block

Apologies, there is a delay in the continuation of Estuary. This space would remain unoccupied, as it is my desire to provide exclusive, timely installments of the story at hand, but I decided, at the risk of committing two of the more egregious writerly sins, those of being pedantic and taking oneself too seriously, to discuss the writer's block I've caught like a cold on an airplane. In the story the unnamed narrator is among a tribe in Borneo where only one other person speaks English, his translator Malu. This limits things. My options are three: I can work with description, interior monologue, and two person conversation. But Malu has proven himself untrustworthy in the narrator's eyes. The conversations are now limited to games, parries (ho! hark! dodge! turn! parry! thrust! spin!), one-ups-manship, and the like. None of which is of any interest to me personally. Watching it in the golden age of Hollywood films, where it was predominant, is fine, but it's not for this story. I decided, in the last installment's cliffhanger, to reveal that another character speaks English, the man who just defeated the narrator in a martial arts match, Pumala. Now we've got something, and with a little conflict already built in. Malu can pursue his own agenda while remaining at my disposal, and the narrator has someone else to talk to.

Which brings us to the block. Pumala acquired the language somehow. It would be redundant to say he got to study abroad like Malu did. Pumala's story is.. what. Historically English was spread in southeast Asia by missionaries, the christians, but in the last few decades the muslims have gained power in these parts of Indonesia. Religion is too complex to bring into this story, and frankly it's too depressing for this writer to spend time on. The simplest explanation is Pumala picked up English from the teevee, but that brings in the onslaught of Western media and cultural hegemony. Also not for this story, also depressing. Another explanation is no explanation at all. Calvino would simply introduce the character and get on with it, sketching his traits as he went, relying on his masterful command of internal logic. I'm.. not that confident yet, I suppose. It's probably my left brain that wants to compartmentalize everything before the story can move on. Result?

Block. Pumala has a story that fits into the larger story. I'm not sure what, yet, but I'll keep working on it this weekend. I hope to have the next installment of Estuary soon. I don't want to repeat what happened with the Butterfly Lanai, where I got stuck and lost interest, or more likely lost interest and then got stuck. I love the short form of the single blog post. It frees my imagination. My technique is to sit down and ask myself, okay, what's in there today? This accounts for the sillier posts such as the William Blake/Napoleon Dynamite pastiche "Gosh." But my point is, I'm trying for a long piece this time. I know there's something to Estuary, and I hope to discover it soon.

My buddy Rob Kelly posts DVD-style commentary with each of his pieces that I enjoy and that I feel adds to the experience. I beg your indulgence to read this post the same way.