A. J. Mahler, Author

I am a traitor to my method and I threw it all away today. I wrote a chapter in the fall of 2010 for Power, the sequel to Money; the prose is fine writing but the betrayal of Betty’s and Jil’s relationship was unforgivable. Revision is a way of life for me, but this chapter was seditious to my normal method of writing and no amount of work could salvage the flawed material. When my writing is going full steam it is because I am in an egoless state and allowing myself to assume the thought processes of my characters. My mind becomes a sieve, catching the thoughts and activities of these phantoms beyond my world, floating amongst the action as a disinterested observer gamely transcribing all I see and hear.

In this case, I tried to tell the characters how to act, feel, and react in this travesty of a chapter instead of giving them free reign to divulge their true selves. Imagine a director insisting his gifted actors play to their weaknesses instead of their strengths. Imagine a leading man playing against type in a bad movie. The scene I wrote was influenced by the desires of a well intentioned advocate of Betty; the outcome was a miscasting of characters for the purpose of achieving conflict and an eventual reconciliation that can be accomplished with more subtle means. Less is more. I have put the metaphorical two by four away.

It took a year of not liking the chapter with growing intensity to finally round the corner and conclude that this chapter is beyond salvage. Into the dustbin it goes and a fresh sheet of paper replaces the formerly textured, modern depiction of the puzzle piece in Betty’s story. Barren landscape now awaits my muse; a vast swath of white noise screaming for fulfillment. Goodbye ego. Hello Betty!