I talked to my advisor this afternoon. He likes my story! He said the material was great, he likes that it's got more depth than a typical ghost story, and he's excited about it! This is a huge relief for me. I didn't know if in all its disjointed, ugly-teenage-phaseness it would be at all appealing.
He gave me some great advice, which I need just about now, as my enthusiasm for the story was starting to flag. He recommended just focusing on getting the order of scenes and the structure of the story as a whole hashed out by the end of the month. I think that's do-able, and it takes some pressure off me to have a more complete draft done in two weeks.
He also recommended moving a particular scene to the beginning, which I think makes a lot of things work better after that, and also helps with the "slow reveal" concept that is definitely coming forward in the story.
The funniest advice he gave me was to read Freud, specifically his essay, The Uncanny, because it deals with cognitive dissonance (things that are familiar yet foreign at the same time), which is a big thing for my main character. I've never been much for Freud, but in skimming over this piece, he may have his literary uses.
My advisor also picked up on the photography (the main character's career) and the letters. He pointed out that photos and letters have a bit of cognitive dissonance to them because they capture a particular moment in the past, when in fact things in the present may be (and often are) very different. That makes me wonder why I didn't think to do something with spirit photos, and I still don't have a darkroom scene.
My main character is reading Jane Eyre at one point, and my advisor said I could do a lot more with parallels not just with the story itself, but also with the ideas of past and present, especially my attic scenes. Check.
I've now got my enthusiasm back for this project. Everybody watch out! I've got ideas, and I'm not afraid to use them!
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