Sunday, 18 August 2002

Got some great writing done over this vacation! None on Wednesday, but on Thursday I got 800 words written on the youth story. Then on Friday I had a new idea for a story and jumped in and wrote 1000 words, all very easy--the story was clear in my head and the words just poured out. On Saturday I wrote another 1500, despite spending most of the day at the Michigan Fiber Festival. Today I wrote 500 in the early morning, and then another 200 this evening, finishing the first draft.

I'm beginning to think it may be important to get a first draft done in just a few days. If I can get a whole story completed, then I can do a lot with the raw material (no matter how rough). But my experience with stories where it takes me weeks to finish a first draft has generally been poor.

Here's a picture of the basket that Jackie made in her class on weaving baskets out of roving.

Today my dad and I went for a walk along some trails that connect the wooded properties of several of his neighbors. It wasn't a long walk, but there was a lot of neat stuff to see: several kinds of mushroom, some Indian Pipe, some American Colombo; a flying squirrel peeked out at us from a hole about twelve feet up in a dead sassafras tree.

The ragweed is in full bloom. Ragweed flowers look a lot like a dull, greenish version of goldenrod flowers. Brushing one of the blossoms with a finger sends a visible cloud of pollen flying. Terrible stuff.

Jackie and I met Clarion classmate John Gonzales for lunch before we headed back. That was great.

The drive back was easy, the weather pleasant.

With a first draft done, I'm almost ready to post it for the next Chambana Speculations meeting. I think I'll hang on to it overnight, and then give it a quick editing pass and post it tomorrow. It's almost too soon to post, there are still things I could figure out how to fix myself, and it's always a shame to have the group members spend time finding the defects I could find and fix myself. But it's only just slightly too soon, and maybe by tomorrow it won't be too soon at all.

It is much like the way I wrote at Clarion, the first draft pouring on it a white heat, a quick once-over, and then turning it in for critiques. It's a delight.

I'm going to take a vacation soon, and spend a big chunk of it writing.