My writing process goes forward in two very different movements. First is creation: you start with nothing and end up with something. Second is revision: you start with something that's a mess to varying degrees and try to make it as good as you can by your own aesthetic values and literary skills.
The first movement is difficult. Fragile. I'm hard to live with, the slightest distraction can lose a thought not quite articulate in the mind. I belong in complete isolation during this phase.
The second movement is fun, a great joy. I get to show off my craft. Nothing bothers me because nothing is fragile, it all exists on the page to go back to. This is the writer as a nice guy.
What is neat about the Overdrive project is that it's all part two. The difficult, fragile first step was taken care of years ago! The stories already exist! I'm simply recasting them, hoping to make them more accessible. Well, accessible from invisibility is not much of a stretch.
This is why I am loving the project. I get something without the pain of getting. I paid those dues already.
Also I am learning how to use search and replace in such a way that the computer does most of the re-formatting. Strange exchanges, like find 44 spaces, a carriage return, a tab, and two spaces and replace it with a single carriage return. Great fun!
How to tell a story
