Canadian geese are getting frisky. Ambient temperatures are unusually warm, the surface ice is melting, and before dawn, they crowd along the shoreline, hundreds and hundreds of them. They are very chatty, although that is not a goose-specific term. They are flapping their wings in close proximity to others. We are definitely in the part of courtship with vocalizations and displays. It’s warm today, but if goslings hatch from the activity, many might die from late winter freezing temperatures. Totally weird weather is driving this. It also drives their over-wintering behavior, something they didn’t used to do.
With the first draft of my book finished, followed by the first re-reading from beginning to end, now begins the work of making it more readable. I look forward to this stage.
I have so much information that I just crammed it all into sentences, paragraphs, and chapters until it is likely too much for a casual reader to take in. That needs fixing. Another thing is it reads like a scientific journal that has been fully footnoted. I know the specific dates when many things happened and quote them as such. For a memoir, I don’t believe I need to do that so much. For example, I refer to seeing the early premier of the film The World According to Garp — written by the Writers’ Workshop’s own John Irving — on May 13, 1982 at Hancher Auditorium. Since the chapter is about 1981-82 anyway, I don’t likely need the specifics of this image. I suppose all this is part of the craft of writing and I’m enjoying the work so far.
I took up my Life of Photos project this week and hoo boy! This will be a beast. I began with the digital files and there are so many of them. The file for 2008 has more than 5,000 images! They are mostly mine, yet some are from other photographers. For example, our child worked as a stage hand on an Arlo Guthrie performance at Walt Disney World that year, and those images are theirs. Likewise, I don’t know who was the photographer for some of the political photos I downloaded. That needs sorting out.
What I do at this beginning stage of the project will have consequences for the rest. For now, I opened two windows, one for the working files and one for the “keeper files,” along with the photo editor. That is sort of a process, yet is cumbersome. The lesson learned is to pace myself and when I start cutting corners, stop for the day. I also need to better organize the keeper files. Just diving in has its merits, yet the process is anything but smooth.
So often I feel like a creative person. I spent a lot of time engaging in life experiences and taking photographs as part of it. It is positive in that I have lots of material, both written and photographic. I feel fortunate to have had the stability and financial support to retain these artifacts of a life and to now go through them to see how they can be used. Working with these resource materials is a different kind of creativity. It is one more experience in the life of a creative person and I welcome it.
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