Tramp, consciousness and the narrative arc

'.....But ultimately, the flâneuse is journeying not just through the streets of the city, but through an exploration of her own human consciousness:

"Miriam’s consciousness is the subject matter of this novel. And it seems to her that the experiences and perceptions of women have been brutally and unreasonably discounted by men. Nor has she any mercy for the majority of women who have, in her judgement, colluded with men in the suborning of their female gifts and attributes. [v]"

In Miriam Henderson, Richardson presents us with a character who lives and breathes flânerie. A character who inhabits the streets and weaves her observations and impressions into her own psyche.' (http://psychogeographicreview.com/theres-a-thousand-things-i-want-to-say-to-you-the-city-modernism-and-the-flneuse/ Downloaded today: 7/02/18)

This is Anna Friedberg talking about Dorothy Richardson's Miriam Henderson in the Pilgrim novels. I like that idea about consciousness being the subject matter of a novel, especially the consciousness of my female protagonist, because I've been wondering what the heck my novel is all about. I've spent today reacquainting myself with it after completing edits of my novel, Gamble, due to be published by Salt Publishing in June this year. I realised, reading back what I've written so far for this novel, that it's a series of vignettes, and I have in mind a particularly unpleasant event, which, I suspect (notice that: suspect. Even I don't really know for sure) will form the peak of the main 'narrative arc'. This is, to be clear (to myself) a story about a flaneuse, a 'tramp' as we used to call them back in the day. And THAT is a very useful word to use, 'Tramp', since, when applied to a woman, these days, it means something completely different. I've been thinking about that, and how that word also relates to walking. Tomorrow, I'm starting early, getting more words onto the page. Friedberg's quote will be uppermost in my mind, and I think I might just change a few things, shift the power a little.