{"id":5170,"date":"2016-01-13T07:26:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T12:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5170"},"modified":"2016-01-13T07:26:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T12:26:24","slug":"my-jake-epping-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5170","title":{"rendered":"My Jake Epping Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James

James Franco as Jake Epping in 11.22.63 from Hulu<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m excited about Hulu\u2019s eight-part production (trailer)<\/a> of Stephen King\u2019s complex 2011 time-travel thriller, 11\/22\/63, which will premiere on President\u2019s Day. I listened to the book several years ago and found it both gripping and fascinating. You may recall that, in King\u2019s novel, high school English teacher Jake Epping goes back in time to try to thwart the assassination of JFK. Unfortunately, every<\/em>thing he does has rippling consequences he cannot foresee. It turns out that \u201chistory doesn\u2019t want to change,\u201d and to try to get it right, he has to reenter the past more than once.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a mysterious character\u2014the Yellow Card Man\u2014who Jake finally learns is in charge of tracking the revisions in history he\u2019s made and making sure all those events play out in their own new way. If someone\u2019s life is saved, for example, they need a future, for better or ill\u2014one they wouldn\u2019t have had without Jake\u2014and one that has its own infinite repercussions. I\u2019ll let you see the series or read the book to get the full flavor of how tiny and profound those changes can be.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s my Jake Epping experience. Consultation with the editor on my Rome-based novel led to agreement that several of the characters need to be expanded. Alas, the book was already straining publishers\u2019 preferences at 98,000 words. Adding means subtracting.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m working on a draft that will eliminate several characters. Like Jake, I\u2019m taking them out of the story and revising the world I have envisioned. (If you\u2019re a writer, too, you know how much time you spend in that alternative universe, filling it with people and objects and snatches of conversation!) All that has to be reimagined. While the roles of these late-lamented were more that of facilitating<\/em> action, rather than major players, it\u2019s still challenging.<\/p>\n

Not only do I have to find plausible ways to get done the things these characters did (e.g., provide my main character with a place to stay; introduce her to the police detective who takes her case). It isn\u2019t just a matter of changing names. In the way that you don\u2019t talk to you best friend from high school the same way to talk to your boss (at least most of us don\u2019t), the dynamics of the remaining characters\u2019 interactions have to be adjusted.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the whole point-of-view from which a scene is written must change. For example, a conversation in a cathedral is very different when seen from a priest\u2019s point of view than from a criminal\u2019s. Different speakers have different goals, different gestures and ways of speaking, and notice different things around them.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a complaint. This process is energizing. You might say that the characters being eliminated were extra furniture, and I\u2019m cleaning house. It\u2019s sharpening my focus, too. Like Jake, I\u2019m trying to understand a world made new. Though a few darlings have been killed in the process, I\u2019m confident my book will be better for it!
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