theatlantic:T.C. Boyle | Project: Write the novel The Tortilla CurtainI’ve always composed directly
theatlantic:T.C. Boyle | Project: Write the novel The Tortilla CurtainI’ve always composed directly on a keyboard, never by hand, and I made the switch from the portable Olivetti my mother gave me for college to the computer in the 1990s. Since then, my finished manuscripts show very little emendation, but the page here, which I dug at random out of the archives, is representative of the process that has been replaced by the great and ongoing miracle of technology. The sort of corrections you see here are now made moment to moment in the process of composition—and, of course, evidence of those corrections now vanishes with a keystroke, lost in the synaptical fire of the brain/computer matrix.The section here is from perhaps my best-known novel, The Tortilla Curtain, published in 1995. Kyra, who makes her living in real estate, is going through a bit of a crise de conscience after the death of one of her Dandie Dinmont terriers (it was snatched and devoured by a coyote). I decided to expand the section to give more of a sense of her involvement with the mansion she is currently selling, so that we can see her begin to reevaluate her career goals with respect to thoughts of mortality and the inequalities of income distribution throughout the county, nation, and world.Read the rest at Project: First Drafts or read more on creativity in our special report. -- source link