The Week in Words - 1/20/25 - 1/26/25
One Big Burst
Output - Data
Total: 8,738 words (15 pages [word count] + 5,678 typed)
Days Writing: 6/7 days (.857 WrPCT)
AWD: 1,456/day
Words Added to Manuscript: 2,946
Ratio: 34
Longest Day: 1/25/25 - 2,605 words (5 pages [1,020] + 1,585 typed)
Shortest Day: 1/22/25 - 404 words typed
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Output - Synthesis
The slowness of last week, brought on by a liminal state between sequences, was met with an absolute burst: I polished “Ageless, Ageless”1, I got the pre-writing and worksheets done for “In Dreams”2, and wrote all of “In Dreams,” somehow. I started the week with bupkis, not even the energy or inspiration to work up the gumption, and finished the week with my highest ratio yet—34!3
It took a monster effort to find my flow, but once I did everything came out easy, albeit piecemeal. It is a fairly often occurrence that I get into the groove only to realize I’ve only got like 20 minutes left before life finds me. Writing this way can often make things come out kinda choppy and discontinuous, as if each day’s stressors leave their imprint on the writing.
To smooth out the seams, I printed out the eight-page sequence, line edited it, and typed it all back out again in two sittings. I tried to do it all as one, but I completely pooped myself out after about five pages. During sitting two, I went back about three hundred words and continued from there. Again, editing and writing and creating are a lot like ironing: go forth, then go back halfway, then go forth, until that shirt is crisp as hell.
It’s crazy, though: I do all this prep work and planning and yet, when the time comes to write the sequence, they cause everything about the structure and the characters to go a’swirlin’ so mightily that I only ever need to use them as after-the-fact reference points. This ensures that we got every detail out during our time spent vibin’
With “In Dreams,” the detail I initially left out of the draft was that Levi4 and Alwyn5 see a longbed wagon full of two-man saws. It’s a small detail, but it brings together all three scenes in the sequence: the part where Carys wants to cut down the trees to develop the Leviticus Institute6, the road to the market square, and the part where Coleman7 tells Levi that logging is set to begin.
I’ve heard Mookie Betts talk about something similar in baseball: the players and the coaches work to game plan and strategize everything, but the moment Lord Mookerson steps in the batter’s box, he lets it all fall away, allowing it to meld with instinct and muscle memory. My process is much the same way—doing all the scene details and beat sheets and character notes is really just so that it melds with my instinct and the universal creative unconscious. If I kept it out in front of me the whole time, I’d never get anywhere because I’d be obsessed with sticking to the plan.
There is still another pass of “In Dreams” to be done. In line with the discontinuity mentioned, Maribel feels untethered and unaffected from the events of “Ageless, Ageless” which had only just happened, like, when Levi says hello she’s just realized that she might be immortal and unchanging, with the question of leaving planted. Yet none of that is apparent with her current interactions with Levi. To be honest, she’s a bit too “Second Draft Maribel,” where nothin’ seems to faze her. But Levi’s gotta see something’s up, she’s gotta obfuscate and withhold and tell him she doesn’t wanna talk about it, because the next scene on the assembly line after “In Dreams” is all about Maribel and the council wrestling with the fact that they are completely unstuck in time physically.
As the Big Lebowski would agree, we’ve gotta make sure it ties the room together and not be incongruous elements shooting the story off on rabbit trails and dead ends. That’s what’s coming up next.
Input
Data
Book: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Starting Page: 160
Ending Page: 200
Days Read: 3/7 days (.429 rPCT)
Pages Read: 40
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Synthesis
God, you guys. I picked up Creation Lake because it was on a ton of year-best lists, desperate to see what’s being published these days, and boy does the urge to defenestrate the damn thing grow with every page.
I reached the halfway point, then put it on timeout.
Why?
The cynicism.
All of the heavy-handed foreshadowing that only comes off as telegraphing.
The fact that the narrator is an edgelord, so committed to her flaming hot takes and myopic worldview.
I am straight-up not having a good time. Which, in its own way, is fascinating as hell. I want to put this book on the shelf and forget this ever happened, but I also really, really want to see it through. It is rare as cluck that a book gives me this type of reaction. And I know that I can only ever fully synthesize this reaction if I finish the damn thing. In the synthesis will come growth and understanding.
Hemingway makes me feel this way, no matter how hard I try. If Hemingway and Faulkner are to writing what Elvis and the Beatles are to music, then I am a Beatles man through and through. Hemingway was addicted to alcohol; and Faulkner was only addicted to workahol (okay, and probably greenies).
I picked up some sweet books from the library to aid in getting some space from Creation Lake. I’ll tell you all about that next week, dawgs and dawgettes.
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⥁⥀⥁ Update Archives
⥁⥀⥁ Fiction
⥁⥀⥁ Appendices
⥁⥀⥁ Non-Fiction
Maribel finds out people have noticed she isn’t changing in any way
Levi is confronted by timber logging and the great loss of trees to come.
Ratio is the Number of Words Added to Manuscript divided by the Total Number of Words In Time Frame, scaled from 1-100. 34 is my thus-far best, meaning 34% of my words written made it into the manuscript.
Levi Greenaway is a prophet who, at the age of 21, led his New Judah Society west in search of God’s promised riches. He has grey eyes and russet unkempt hair. His voice is deep and is often hoarse from his passionate sermons.
Alwyn Cadwalader Davies is a 33 year old man who lost his wife Rebeca when she slipped on the deck of their ship and went overboard. They were unable to rescue her after great clamor and attempt, and he was left to watch her drown, die, and float along the surface with no way to recover her.
The college that Levi is building, that will house the quiet council and be a place “of learning and wonder”
Ralph Coleman is a 35 year old man which Williams brings in to establish and run Fernveil and Levi’s foil. He has blond hair combed and greased into a harsh part, skin red-ruddy from the pollen, mustache trimmed, tailored gray suit blending into the clouds around, wingtipped shoes equipped for a bank. He is short, diminutive in stature.
Skip to the last chapter & maybe it’ll all be clearer. Shame on me because I do this when a book is going nowhere.