20: Time Was On My Side
11/14/2011
Just finished scene five of “The Fever.” Took a couple days off to collate the material I would need for it, and then to think about how to make it interesting. It’s essentially an exposition scene between Wanyana and Bulala, and those can be deadly. Very hard to keep the pacing up to speed and maintain interest. Very little action, and almost all dialogue between the two women.
I think I pulled it off okay. The diction and syntax can always be improved but given the constraints of the scene I think it’s as good as I could have hoped for. We’ll see in a couple months when I reread it with fresh eyes.
This scene was 2,170 words – longer than I planned on, but that’s okay. This whole chapter will be about 11,000 words by the time I’m done. Two more scenes, one long and one short. My total word count for the whole book so far is 37,489 (not including “The Song of Alodia”), with a total of 123 pages. If I finish “The Fever” by 11/17 it will have taken two weeks, just like Chapter Two: Kumbella did. It’s coming along.
Present-Day Reflection
6/14/2026
I wish I had the time these days to just take a couple weeks to “collate the material” I need for any given project. I knew even back then that time was on my side, and that one day I’d look back on that period with envy. So, I never took having lots of time for granted, which proved enough to keep me on task. Usually.
Now, just having a single day without distraction is a true luxury I can rarely afford. I’m not complaining though, because on the whole things are an improvement for me now. I’ve just had to learn to better prioritize my “to-do” list and work more efficiently with what time I have – focusing on speed and quality simultaneously. Lots of pivoting in my tactics to avoid wasting time as I try to maximize output.
Though it works well for this publishing phase I find myself in, I’m hoping it’s just a temporary lifestyle. Because, though I’m far happier with my life now than I was 15 years ago, it’s not very conducive for the rumination and navel-gazing I need to produce my best creative work.
Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself. Truth is, I’m not sure. Art and creativity are still a mystery for me, where I can only speak in hindsight about what’s worked in the past. I can’t truly forecast the future with any accuracy.
