MONDAY 7:17 AM

1/13

Been kinda slow getting busy with the production of Y2K. I was able to get the entire manuscript on paper which I find better to move on to the next draft phase, than  the electronic copies on my laptop's "my writing spot," or even my flash drives. Now I can move forward. I just need to read the entire manuscript written at two different times, one in 2009 when I originally sat down to write it, and again in 2012 when I decided to finish it. Altogether, however, it's only about 40K words, and from what I can see so far two different stories have emerged. My challenge is to turn it into one novel. That is the direction I'm headed in now: Looking at what I've written and putting it all together in one cohesive story. I will sort through the pages and "cut & paste" my words together to make the whole thing complete/a whole story. From that point on and even in between, I will develop character,plot, and the entire story structure.

ADDENDUM

...Took a walk over to Fed-Ex to have my manuscript printed up off a flash-drive. I have never had a greater feeling than watching those pages printed out. It validated me, yours truly as a writer. Not that I ever doubted my credentials or noting like that, but oh what a feeling to hold those printed pages in my hand.


1/14 - Tuesday 7:49 am

Yeh, if you know already, yesterday's "journal write" was not timed. After I caught on, I ended without knowing how long I rambled. But it was probably necessary.

I really have to get on track with Y2K and stay there until it's done, whatever that means right now. I'm not halfway or close to finishing up with reading the manuscript. So far what I recognize is the story, thus far, is a haphazard effort.  The drafts that followed Y2K were more cohesive, and would probably be a better start, but I still gotta whip it into shape. There is no better time than now. And knowing me, as I do, I  need to start from the beginning and proceed methodically to the end in a more or less straight line.

1/15- Wednesday 7:26 am

The narrative flow and direction of Y2K from the initial writing in 2009 to the restart or addition in 2012 is dramatically different. The growth in my writing is evident. The task now before me is to direct those two distinctly different stories into one. What to do, would be to  follow the draft I completed in 2012 using the format of the Book-In-A-Month process. It's my only hope of developing one story out of the two.

In 2009 I wrote from notes accumulated since the early 80s, and maybe even further back. In 2012 I incorporated some of those elements into my first draft and wrote the story down with new characters.