I'm having one of those days. I don't have them often but, for some reason, I seem to have them more working on this book than I do with any other thing that I do. Short stories? I get excited about them and generally lay them out in a single session, then spend the next couple of weeks revising. Sure, it takes me weeks or months to get the stories to where I want them to be but, I never put off working on them. I am always excited to dive in. (At least, until the 12th time reading the story, then I'm pretty well sick of it.) With Jack, it's a little different. This story is not based upon lived experience and is pretty long so, there is a lot to keep front and center in my mind when I'm creating new chapters. If I forget an important plot point I can write a lot of "most excellent prose" that is completely unsupported and leads to confusion. Worse, I sometimes get new ideas as I write new stuff and have to go back and change the old stuff to make room for the new stuff. (Lots of stuff in that sentence. Spend some time interpreting the word "stuff" in all of its derivations. You'll be wiser.) In short, I can always find ways to burn several hours just tinkering with the manuscript rather than doing actual writing. Still, I've written 2 chapters this week and hope to have the third in the can by tomorrow. (Does in-the-can work for writing like it does for movies? Or does it suggest that I'm just throwing it all away? Hah. I might be. This may be the great unread manuscript when I'm finished.) 10 more chapters to go (maybe) and I'll be done with the rough draft and ready to start slashing. Can't wait to get there from here. It will be nice to have all of the story nailed down so that its tail isn't just whipping around in the whimsical wind and changing by the day. I hate being so impatient and so mercurial.
The picture! Tricksy Arianna. She never lets me procrastinate. Whenever either of us gets bored we have to hit the road, do some drawing, pretend to find Pokemon, go for a walk, buy some breakfast, something, something, always something. This picture was taken in a Mississippi truck stop over Christmas vacation. She decided to travel as Pikachu. I went as a middle aged, chubby man. People thought she was cute, I don't know what they thought of me.