Chaos & Challenge

I've a messy first draft writer. Always have been. If a draft is not so messy, it's an accident of more initial clarity than I usually start with.

The current project -- Sodom, Gomorrah and Jones -- is messier than usual. In part this is because I have a very complicated protagonist -- a retired history professor emeritus, Native American genocide his specialty, almost clinically depressed by the state of the world and the death of his wife, music his only outlet, suddenly thrust by a friend into contemporary mores he's successfully avoided thinking about -- a layered storyline, ala Durrenmatt, hopefully wedding a page-turner with a sense of slower reflection on important issues, and structured as titled vignettes, ala Connell in Mrs. Bridge. A whole bunch going on, in other words, and little of it under control yet.

But this is exciting -- thanks to experience. I've been through this before and learned that, despite the chaos and challenge, it somehow comes together, it somehow works. So I steadfastly go forward.

Uploaded my first 25 pages to Kindle, took notes, with do minor revisions today and move on. I'm having fun and am excited at grandiose possibilities here. Edward Albee was asked, What's your favorite work? He replied, What I'm working on. Why else would I write?