The End of One Road...

It's always the darkest before a new dawn isn't it? I sure hope so, because my motivation, energy and output on a creative as well as professional level has been at an all time low. Maybe its because being back from vacation and a long weekend at the beach in Hua Hin means the end for the foreseeable future of leisure activities. Maybe it's because years of working within relative safe bounds and long contracts I now fear the dark deep canyons of freelance IT work. I don't know exactly, but other than a Klimt-esque painting of Nancy and a steady throughput of young adult novel reading (just finished The Black Tattoo and Sisters Grimm) I have had little actual results to count my own.

But atrophy and disinterest can only take so much of a toll, before I find the need to fight it with renewed vigor. While Nancy is gone for a week on work related travel, I will embark on an attempt to cut through the self-imposed red tape of procrastination and sidetracking and try to produce some results. No, not try. Do or do not. There is no try. Thanks mental Yoda. Where would I be without you. Nancy actually helped me with this one. She said: "Marcel, you know how I'm always frustrated with a disorganized computer desktop? And then you come along and straighten everything out? Well, this is your desktop and I'm going to help you straighten it out." She's promised to help me with a schedule, which includes bigger chunks of the day focusing on the main three tasks in my life right now: work, writing and map-making (this last one is a little discussed project here on this blog, so it might come out of the blue). In the meantime, this week I'll focus on redrafting (and ONLY redrafting) as much as I can without getting bogged down by Internet, trivialities and my own plotted support material.

I have accumulated a ton of background material regarding to Simon & Sally in 1001 documents, post-its, notepads, napkins and tissues and they are lying all over the place. I should however ignore all this and trust that I've given the first draft the most important of plot devices, the best character traits and the most relevant dialogue. Everything that I managed to forget or otherwise omit is most likely not relevant anyway. No, Stephen King said it best when he stated that the first draft you write for yourself, the second draft you write for your audience. I now should focus on smoothing the narration, filling in plot gaps, making the storyline and events consistant and the characters breathe through their actions and dialogue. Otherwise it just becomes yet another selfindulgent exercise in literary daydreaming.

So tomorrow. Redrafting starts. Pure and simple. No reference books (sorry dad). No blog advice (sorry Stewart Ferris). No Internet (sorry Seth Godin). Only 2 documents - the original draft and the second draft. So, hop in the car Muses. We have sat alongside the road for too long. The car is fueled and the road beckons. Time to get moving. Write away.