{"id":9530,"date":"2022-03-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9530"},"modified":"2022-03-01T08:15:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T13:15:54","slug":"where-do-writers-ideas-come-from-why-an-architect-take-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9530","title":{"rendered":"Where Do Writers\u2019 Ideas Come From? Why an Architect – Take 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The protagonist of my novel, Architect of Courage (AofC), scheduled for publication June 4, has lived in my head so long, it\u2019s hard to remember when he wasn\u2019t with me. Or, for that matter, where he came from. I wrote a version of this post 18 months ago, but now that the book\u2019s publication date is nearing, it\u2019s time for an update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One aspect of the choice, is that I didn’t want the story to be about a cop or a p.i., or a former CIA officer–I wanted an everyman. The kind of “ordinary” person who lands in extraordinary circumstances. How such a person deals with trauma and fear is and carries on despite them is of great interest to me. A person whose world is literally “upside down.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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n AofC, Archer Landis recalls a childhood doing a lot of what I had to do, tromping around housing developments, being disappointed in what was on offer. So he created his own design for \u201cthe perfect house,\u201d which his parents had built and lived in the rest of their lives. He has this sketch framed in his office, and as the story proceeds, his feelings about it and what it represents change markedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In college I lurked around the studios in the architecture school, fascinated by the students\u2019 model buildings and the smell of sharpened pencils, rubber cement, clay. A scene in the novel has Landis ruminating on that kind of by-hand work versus today\u2019s 3-D printing. Decades later, I\u2019m still a rubber cement kind of gal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landis is confronted with people who are his symbolic opposite. He wants to build; they want to destroy. Their destructiveness affects him directly, personally and professionally, and threatens his family, his business, his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To write about Landis, I had to try to see the world through his eyes, an architect\u2019s eyes\u2014the things he notices, how he approaches relationships, the way he circles back to the touchstone of his calling. Straightedges and French curves and stone samples. Also, quite a lot of the story takes place at his office\u2014interactions with staff, police visits, coping. While I tried hard, I had to make sure the world I\u2019d created rang true, and I asked a prominent architect to read an advance copy. Ralph Hawkins, FAIA, Chairman Emeritus of HKS, Inc., one of the nation\u2019s largest architectural firms read it and, thankfully, not only survived the experience without tearing out his hair, but gave it a nice blurb too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Elmgreen & Dragset, The Hive, 2020, stainless steel, aluminum, polycarbonate, LED lights, and lacquer, commissioned by Empire State Development in partnership with Public Art Fund for Moynihan Train Hall, Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy Empire State Development and Public Art Fund, NY. See it! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The protagonist of my novel, Architect of Courage (AofC), scheduled for publication June 4, has lived in my head so long, it\u2019s hard to remember when he wasn\u2019t with me. Or, for that matter, where he came from. I wrote … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Why my novel's protag is an architect. He needed to be an \"everyman,\"and not a trained investigator too.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,174,60,29],"tags":[1963],"class_list":["post-9530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-first-draft-blog","category-storytelling","category-writing","tag-architect-of-courage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2tI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9535,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9530\/revisions\/9535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}