Amanda Salisbury

Yike. This was all part of a life Before. It’s strange from this distance but a worthwhile memory.

-AS

An American Monomyth

• Originally posted on a 6s community, June 8, 2011 at 12:25pm

One year ago today I knew I had an American monomyth in my hands, so I hid under my desk for as long as my children allowed and then turned off my computer for a week to paint a mural on the dark walls of my L-shaped hallway. Now, this is not the first American monomyth, but it is my first monomyth altogether, and I needed wet paint and curious children and a pure Oklahoma heat to sear the new knowledge upon the hills and ravines of my grey matter.

Yesterday I finished rewriting the first chapter, translating from third person omniscient to first person limited perspective. In March, Scholastic editor Nick Eliopulos critiqued my first ten pages and suggested playing with perspective, writing that he found himself paying more attention to the writing than the story and that such might work with literary fiction but not so much with a genre action piece. Not surprisingly, the third person omniscient draft is my voice, and the first person limited is the story’s voice. The transformation is at once exciting and wonderful even though I don’t know whether anyone will ever read either.