Perfection's Impasse

Introduction

What is this thing even about?

Perfection's Impasse is a work-in-progress novel. It's character-driven and very, very weird. First of all: different flavors of obsession. With control. Identity. Affection. Fascination. Desirability. All of that. 

However, the main theme, as the title suggests, is the destruction of perfection. Not to be confused with perfectionism. Perfectionism is real; perfection is not. Another theme is reality versus delusion. Because what the hell even is reality?

Core concept?

"What if average people tried to prove something to the world —
and lost themselves chasing the illusion of flawlessness?"

What kind of characters appear in the novel?

So, you see, here we have:

A protagonist who hunts for patterns and therefore comes to weird conclusions,
an antagonist who shapes the edges of her own reality for no one but herself,
a catalyst who doesn't speak, loves hard, and throws papers at people,
and another catalyst who takes notes about everyone she meets.

There are also a few side characters but those don't matter too much.

What about the setting?

It takes place in an unspecified temperate-climate country, and a high school named Upper Valley Secondary. The time period is the first half of the 21st century.

Main cast

First, we have... a person named Tara. She is:

• The paranoid protagonist
• The one who sees patterns in everything
• The person you wouldn't know the gender of at first glance
• The chaos creator who craves order

Then... there's Ezra:

• The perfectionist antagonist
• The one who makes reality into what she wants it to be
• The big fan of mirrors and her own reflection
• The person who does things last minute

Next... Ivy, of course:

• The mute volatile catalyst
• The one who ignores personal space and throws papers
• The long-term medication owner
• The biggest hater of silence and writing

And last but not least... Simona:

• The catalyst who writes about people
• The one who never lets go of her diary
• The breaker of boundaries
• The person who sort of lacks an identity

Motifs

Right, motifs. First of all: sticky notes and rocks. Obviously. Because those are the main character's thing and appear in the story a ton. 

Since she also owns a camera, another motif could be photos.

The most important thing, however, are mirrors. Because they reflect.

And the other characters give us motifs like letters, coffee, candles, bows, etc., etc. You can check the character profiles for the other stuff.

Then, there are four colors: red for Tara, blue for Ezra, green for Simona, and purple for Ivy. It's all color-coded, yeah?

The reason why

Because I would love to spread the message that perfection isn't a reachable goal and that reality can be whatever you want it to be, but always at a cost. The novel is not supposed to be a lesson more than a manifestation of your very own self. A mirror.

Notes

You can:

• see all of my Perfection's Impasse related content here
• contact me in a million ways
• check out my social media accounts

Also, if you type in the link "www.danaduck.net/chapter(number)", you can change the number depending on which chapter you'd like to see.

(But... right now, I only have the links for chapters 1, 2 and 3 and they are empty.)  

Thanks for reading, by the way !!