Friday, 11 May 2001

Outlining my story, trying to capture the essential elements. There are still some rough spots--I need to make the hero's skill be valuable enough to save him when he uses it elsewhere, yet not so valuable that it solves his problem at home. But I can't reduce its value the easy way (by making it common), or other people would already be doing what I want him to figure out to do. That bit still needs a bit of thinking. But it is very close. I have the outline almost all worked out--and almost all the scenes are written already. I just need to piece together the final details of the situation, and then put it together the way I've figured it out.

Clarion is drawing closer at an ever-increasing pace. (I suppose that isn't strictly true. Time probably moves at a unvarying pace. Still, it might be true. I don't know of a good way to test for varying versus unvarying time. And it certainly seems to be going faster.) I've got a lot to do in the three weeks before I leave.

There's an old joke where someone asks a guy why he's banging his head against a wall. The guy says, "Because it feels so good when I stop." I find exercise to be kind of like that. Not exactly, because it also feels good to run and lift, and the soreness after isn't a bad kind of pain. But there's definitely some truth to it. When I take a day off, the next day I feel really good. Of course then I go and run and lift and I'm all sore again. But, for a little while there, it feels great.

Bicycled to work on Thursday. Jackie rode with me most of the way. Today it was rainy so I didn't try to ride or run, just went to the Fitness Center and lifted weights.