Aughtfold.
So about two weeks ago I was about to start in on the last scene, and here I am, two weeks later, just about to finish it. —This is not so much a bad thing; in those two weeks I essentially rewrote the entire first draft, soup to nuts, and it’s tighter, each scene with its purpose at least in mind if not revealed, much closer to what I usually consider to be my level and standard of first draft: tight, clean, purposeful.
But it’s not so much a good thing, either: I’m falling behind what passes for a schedule around here, a passing fancy I’d been managing to keep to for the first time in a while.
I’m still ambivalent, aren’t I. —Among the 22 novelettes that (will come to) make up Spring; Summer, this one, no. 37, lines up with the Temperance card: the angel, sat upon the bank of a river or a crick, engrossed in pouring water or liquor from the one cup to the other, waiting, perhaps, for the corpse of an enemy to float on by, I don’t know. Balance. Moderation. Patience—but also neither fish nor fowl. An April 25th type of deal, which isn’t nearly as amusing on a May 14th without much rain.
The lesson to’ve been learned from writing this thirty-seventh novelette would seem to’ve been that it’s one thing to know what needs to be said, and to whittle and shape and reframe until you figure out how it’s going to be said; it’s another entirely to have a flavor in mind, a taste in the head, a how that some as-yet unknown thing ought to be said, and to flail about in the finding of what it is that ought to be said in this way. (At least, you flail enough, there’s something there to be whittled and shaped and etc. —Appearances, and there being enough thereof.) —I believe, rather late in the day, I’ve finally settled on the order of the scenes; now, I just need to do that final editing pass, and then get the copies finaled and polished for the patreons, and then, and then—
But! I (still) don’t mean to alarm anymore than I do to exult. It’s doable, yet, or it yet looks doable from here: to have no. 37 done and dusted before Memorial Day. You’ll be kept posted. —In the meanwhile, here’s the photo that’s going on the cover. Enjoy!
—posted 1089 days ago
(Originally posted on the Patreon.)
