June 20th, 2010

The Story So Far and Peckish Gators

Mmm...Mmm...Good! I have made it to the 70% mark of the book. I have heard many analogies and metaphors for the rigors of long projects. I prefer to recall my own personal challenges from the past and compare them.

About eight years ago, I got some strange notion that I should go canoeing in the Myakka River in Florida. At the canoe rental office, the cashier asked me if I would prefer a kayak. The kayak cost $35 more and I didn’t want to pay for something I was going to use for two hours. I could get a hotel room for that price. Come to think of it, some people do use hotels for an hour, but that usually involved tabloids and vice cops.

I should have rented the freakin’ kayak.

I launch my canoe and I sit astern and start rowing into middle of the river. So far, the rustling of cattails and the lapping of water put my nervous soul at peace. I reached the middle of the river and the canoe became harder to control and steer. The river’s currents had caught me in its grasp and it was like rowing in sand. I would paddle to the right but the canoe’s bow wouldn’t move with me.

I exhausted myself trying to control the canoe, and I lost balance and capsized. As I broke the water’s surface I saw the rigged back of an alligator floating several yards from me. Usually, alligators aren’t fond of human flesh, and I hoped this gator had already fed.

I managed to walk the canoe to the shallows and pulled myself back inside. A pair of canoers noticed my situation and paddled toward me. “You need to sit in the middle,” a woman said. I scooted toward the middle of the canoe and knelt. As I started paddling, I had more control of the canoe since I had put the center of gravity in the middle. I paddled back to the launch point.

I’ve capsized three or four times in the progress of this novel. I’ve been forced to scrap two chapters of which I think contained the best prose I have ever written. I launched into this project with two oars but no idea how to steer. I had no plan on how to navigate unforseen swells, currents and peckish gators. A little planning would have saved me a lot of time.

The next novel project I will begin with an outline, a synopsis and research before “Chapter 1″ gets inked. However, I have am scheduled to have the next draft complete by July 15.