Spectacle, It Ain’t

Heian LadyIt occurs to me—not for the first time, nor with me first—that a writer at work, head down on a project, whatever it is, has to be just about the dullest creature on the planet. Yeah all of us, at once. The single dullest creature. It’s probably some sort of hive-mind effect going on, except for the fact that they’re no communal thought. Separately but altogether making up one really dull creature.

Frankly, if that paragraph above makes one lick of sense, it’s a gol-danged miracle. Attempting to shift focus from the WIP to a blog post is rather like asking a long distance runner to take a break by running wind-sprints. You get the idea. So before I mangle another analogy let me just apologize in advance. I’ve been in my own little world—I know, because I created it. The framework may be perfectly historical, but it’s mine just the same. Lots of things going on there. We’ve just proceeded through a crisis point that informs and drives the remainder—I think—of the book. But from the outside, the crisis point looks just like the scene in the bar/brothel in chapter 3—a guy sitting typing at a computer.

Exciting, huh? And every day is just more of the same, with occasional forced emergences into the “real world,” where I usually just stand blinking and muttering “what an odd place.” You wouldn’t even think I’d taken an extended driving vacation through the Great Smokeys or attended a dynamite concert, both in recent weeks. Can’t talk about either of them because that’s not where my headspace is right now, and for a while yet. So again, apologies. I know it’s dull, but in a way we both go through it in order that the book itself shall not be dull. Stands to reason—that’s where everything is happening. Around me personally? Not so much.

I crossed the 65,000 word mark yesterday—I almost said “barrier” because that’s what they called border crossings in that time and that place. Where I’m spending most of my mental time, and not talking to anyone much. Have around 20-25K left, I think. Then maybe I’ll be coherent again. But I wouldn’t count on it.