Life is a process of re-learning. (Talk about a broad lede.)
What I mean is, not everything you learn is in the vault forever. Apart from things like the times tables and the Happy Birthday To You, you spend a lot of time relearning stuff you already know. (Oooh, and your first phone number. If you were born before 1980, there’s a long-defunct 7-digit number you remember for no reason whatsoever. Right?)
This is a variant on the ‘everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten’ school of philosophy. History doesn’t repeat but it rhymes. That sort of thing.
Relevance to my current project relates to the chapter I just sent off to Mel. Our heroes have been spending a lot of time together, mostly agreeing with each other. At the end of the chapter, Adele is overcome with sadness (there’s a cute kid who may not make it) and general angst, and just flat-out loses her shit and runs off.
I didn’t plan this plot point. I didn’t check with Mel (though I should have – sorry, partner!). I just know that separated heroes reinforce different storylines and character arcs.
And this is something I already knew. In my co-write with Marthe Jocelyn, our heroes spent a lot of time in different universes. Ted Staunton’s hero and mine are in the same scene but don’t know it because his guy is disguised as Laura Secord and mine is the back end of her cow (long story – don’t ask).
So I have re-learned a plot truth about co-authorship. Maybe one day I’ll re-learn how to program my phone – whose number I do not remember.
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