Duality

Above, an apt illustration of  Scrodinger's cat. He lives and dies both and neither in a sort of duality.

In physics, we describe items - particles - which appear in pairs as having the property of strangeness. It's a sort of duality where the particle and the anti-particle coexist at the same time and thus conserve some principles of creation.

There is something liberating in a new project. It is a trip to an uncertain destination along a map we draw as we travel.

I have a friend starting a new novel and his premise revolves around a road trip of revelation. Elizabeth Spann Craig over at Mystery Writing is Murder had an essay this week on road trips as well. Looks like everyone is one the road.

Our characters need a sense of duality. In part, they need it because they reveal things about the human condition and the human condition is a mixed bag at best. Duality fits right in. 

Mostly, they need duality because no one can be all bad, all good, all innocent, or all evil. We need some of both for the mix to hold our reader's attention.

The lovable rogue: great archetype. 

I'm using a slightly different path this time. I'm starting with an innocent man who - because of environmental factors - becomes inured to the baser motivations of man. Instead of becoming a criminal himself, he becomes desensitized to the worst criminals have to offer. This outcome is courtesy of Chicago Police Department who "always get their man ...well, a man - anyway." 

This stain gives him a unique ability to interact with the worst of the worst. His own difficulties with the charge of murder gives him credibility and a certain type of vulnerability attractive to the criminal class I feature.

I'm leaving him a fugitive. I like that duality. An innocent man on the lamb. Yes, an old saw. But done well ...done well: anything is possible.

I hope your new project is going well. I hope your criminal endeavors all involve malice aforethought and unlike my protagonist, you are pursued for your true guilt. 

I'm guilty of needing to write more. I'd better turn myself in now.

Mind the cat.