101: This Above All Else
10/22/2015
I went ahead and finished Chapter 25: Palm Sap, that night on the 18th. Then I knocked out the next one, The Message, the following day. With Palm Sap, I just removed the fight sequence and had a simple conversation between Dougga and Bakar. Not much drama, beyond Dougga spilling his mother’s palm sap. But it might even be for the best to have a nondramatic chapter once in a while.
Chapter 26: The Message, turned out better. It was already well conceived though and worked out in my mind in advance, so it came much easier. I think the hard chapters to write are just the ones I haven’t thought about enough to explore all the hooks and angles, and to get their themes clear in my head. Quite simply, they’re not ready to be written yet.
With that in mind, I skipped over the next four chapters and went straight to Chapter 31: Badru and rewrote that. Then I wrote the fable that follows that, The Herald of Jukun. This morning I rewrote A Meeting in the Dark, and tonight I’m going to work on Chapter 34: Siona’s reading. So, things are moving naturally now as they should, though it’s only rewriting with a few additional segments to fit in with the new context.
But I’m going to have to go back in a few days to tackle the four chapters I skipped. Ready or not. Hopefully, I’ll have a good feel for them by then, but… not likely. It takes time, and my time is running out on my deadline.
Present-Day Reflection
9/3/2026
Sometimes it’s best to take the path of least resistance instead of banging your head against a brick wall that just won’t give.
Today, I finally finished the formatting of the paperback version for Wings of Providence. I knew the pagination and header material was going to be a nightmare and have been putting it off for as long as I could – until the very end. Once I cracked the nut of how the formatting worked, it was just a matter of putting in the hours of drudgery. But getting to that point of understanding was frustrating as hell.
Formatting the hardbound version will be much easier, now that I’ve got the basic template for the whole thing worked out. It just feels really good right now to have this first book done and ready to go. A huge weight has been removed from my shoulders, and it’s not lost on me how I am the one that makes it so heavy by how I choose to perceive the work that lies ahead of me.
Knowing the difference between avoiding something difficult or procrastinating and giving things time to percolate until the timing is just right, is a tricky judgement call. It takes a good degree of objective introspection to be that honest about your motives. Lie to the whole world, if you feel you need to, but never lie to yourself.
As the master put it, to thine own self be true.
