accumulation

I guess it means you are ready to be a real writer if it is harder to shorten the chapters then it is to write them in the first place. So many possible words!

Faded

Once upon a time I knew this guy who killed himself with a shotgun. I used to think that most horrible part of his unfortunate choice was that he did while the rest of his family was upstairs eating dinner.

This afternoon, while listening to the radio, it occured to me that maybe the most horrible part of the story is that he did it while listening to Metallica's "Fade to Black". To me this used to be a sad detail that is probably true for many of these decisions.

Now, thinking about that cracked jewel case, probably either destroyed or sold to Cheapo, I can't help feeling how sad it is that he chose his final moments to be absorbed in a song which has been heard by millions of people on millions of CDs and in millions of different moments. There was nothing special about that song in that moment, with the exception that he thought it would set the stage for his death.

How meaningless and empty.

Work

Revision is so much easier when you have a handle on where the story ends. Seems to me that most of the revisions to this point were scattershot experiments, paint sprayed in spirals, and now the real fine work can begin.

Accompli

345 pages, 31 chapters later, and the third draft of the novel formerly known as "Morphopolis" is done. Have a drink on me. So to speak.


On to another, and penultimate round of (academic) revisions.