33: Managing the Mess
10/8/2012
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time can slip away for me. It’s been four months since I made an entry here. And though I finished Chapter Five: The Kulu, four months ago, I’m only halfway through Chapter Six: Lost in the Darkness. But though I’ve been creatively lazy, it hasn’t been as bad as it appears.
For example, I completely rewrote all of Chapter Five: The Kulu, rewrote and extended Chapter One: Alena, rewrote and added clarifying material to the prologue: The Yara, and have been illustrating the title pages of each of these chapters. I just finished drawing a ceremonial drum for the title page of Chapter Two: Kumbella. I also edited and added crucial material to that chapter and am currently transcribing it into a legible format.
All this rewriting is part of my desire to have a fully realized and designed Author’s Edition, done by hand but as nicely packaged and complete as possible. I spent a bit of time drawing up a cover for this, which was when I also finalized my decision to title my first book “The Song of Mugasha”.
And then I had some personal drama that involved my having to pack everything up and move. I mailed my Batu scene outlines to family and asked them to mail them back to me while in the midst of moving so I could use this downtime to continue working on the narrative.
So, I started Chapter Six: Lost in Darkness in the middle of my drama and was also in the middle of the fifth scene – just prior to Pardos killing Mosai, when I finally arrived at my new home, which was four days ago. Since then, I’ve rewritten Chapter One: Alena, edited Chapter Two: Kumbella, and illustrated Chapter Four: The Fever as quickly as possible so I can return to finish Chapter Six: Lost in the Darkness. Then Everything will be caught up so I’ll have my Author’s Edition in good order up to Chapter Seven: The Wounded. And hopefully get Chapter Eight: Dissolutions done too by New Years. That would make me halfway done with the first book in three months. I would be very happy with that.
So far, I am quite pleased with this polished Author’s Edition and can’t (at this time) find any fault with it. I have no doubt, however, that time will expose its faults. Time always does.
Present-Day Reflection
6/27/2026
As I reread this entry I can feel the chaos of life back then within my unfocused ramblings, leaving me with a sense of gratitude to have it all behind me. Life will always be messy, just hopefully not to that degree anymore as I move forward. I like to think I’ve got a better handle on this thing called life, and so it appears from the comfort of my writing desk these days. I’m much more stable financially, emotionally, and with far less external turmoil coming from the others I share my life with. So, for the moment, I’m able to confine most of my drama to the pages of fiction.
There’s also a lot I could unpack from this entry in terms of how the structure of my Batu saga differs now from where it stood back then, but I don’t think I’ll bother. There’s still so much upheaval and restructuring yet to come in future entries, and it’s already beginning to feel like an exercise in futility trying to keep up with its unravelling. Suffice it to say, what I was calling “halfway done with the first book” in this entry was really halfway done with book two.
Life is messy. So, it’s only natural that the process of making art should be as well.
