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close to me (they know who they are) who thrashed in and banged around inside the problem. They couldn’t see the full solution, but the ideas that they stirred up helped me see it.
     
    The answer was to move the book out farther into the future.
     
    That was the stroke that split the diamond.
     
    In other words, nothing mystical, nothing New Age-y, nothing involving the Law of Attraction.
     
    The solution was mechanical.
     
    It was like saying “Get the drive-wheel back on the pavement; then the car will come out of the ditch.” Or “put the ship-date off one month to give us time to repair the glitches first.”
     
    It worked. It took an extra year, but it solved the problem.
     
    And yes, the book did crash a second time after that, requiring a second trip back to Square One.
     
    What else is new?
     
    Moby Dick When It Crashes
     
    Just for fun, let’s imagine that Moby Dick crashed 9/10ths of the way through and Herman Melville texted us in a panic, pleading for help. What would the rescue operation look like?
     
    We hurry over to HM’s house and read the manuscript. Mel already has feedback from other friends and colleagues. All agree the book isn’t working. We ask our Big Question: “What’s missing?” The consensus focuses on the captain.
     
    One comment: “He’s kinda like Captain Queeg, an unbalanced neurotic.” Another: “He reminded me of Captain Bligh—an autocratic prick.”
     
    Let’s go to the foolscap. What does it say about the skipper?
     
    Next: a mortal to challenge the monster. He must be monstrous himself. Obsessed, arrogant, monomaniacal. Ahab.
     
     
    Hmmm. Let’s dig deeper. What does the foolscap say about the theme?
     
    … the clash between human will and the elemental malice of nature.
     
     
    Melville is freaking a little; he’s too close to the material, he has identified his hopes with it too much. Plus he’s broke and the rent is due. We’ve given him a couple of stiff tots of rum; he’s lying down in the bedroom. But still, the Problem. What exactly is it?
     
    Two things.
     
    First, Ahab as he stands now is weak; he’s not a worthy opponent for the White Whale. We have to beef him up.
     
    Second, the theme is incomplete.
     
    Again we ask, “What’s missing?”
     
    Ahab needs to be more monstrous, more monomaniacal. How can we accomplish that?
     
     
Give him a peg leg. (Remember, this wasn’t a cliché in the 1850s.)
     
Not just any peg leg, but one made of whale ivory.
     
Add that Ahab lost the leg, fighting a whale.
     
Not just any whale, but Moby Dick himself.
     
Let Ahab tramp the quarterdeck nightlong, obsessed with vengeance—and let the echo of that whale-ivory leg resound through the crew’s quarters below like a knell of madness.
     
Add a crazed white streak running through Ahab’s hair and beard, as if metaphysical hatred-lightning had carved a scar upon his soul.
     
Add beats to heighten Ahab’s obsession. Here’s one: When the Pequod passes another whaling vessel, the Rachel , which has just seen and fought Moby Dick and lost beloved members of the crew, including the captain’s son, for whom they’re searching now, let Ahab spurn all appeals for help and drive his own ship faster in pursuit of the white whale.
     
Let Ahab renounce his whaling contract and denounce the for-profit nature of the voyage. The hell with killing other whales for their oil! Ahab will hunt Moby Dick for vengeance alone!
     
     
    These changes are helping. Ahab is much better than he was before, with two good legs and regular hair. But we need more.
     
    We need to take the theme one level deeper …
     
    The story can’t just be about “the clash between man’s will and the malice of nature.” That’s not enough. It must add the element of man-as-part-of-nature-himself. So that Man is dueling the evil inside himself and being consumed by it.
     
    Again, “What’s missing?”
     
    The involvement of the crew! If Ahab is the only crazy person