On Being a Writer

My current book is heading for home and each new day of editing brings a sense of impending completion. Being a career logistician, I consider process: By June, copies for early readers; then another edit; then fund-raising, printing, and distribution. Having written it, the work ahead is answering questions about whether it is the best it can be.

What is this autobiography, with working title A Working Life: A Memoir, about?

A man who set out to write discovers the long experience of work and of living meaningful days in the American Midwest is the life of a writer.

While this sentence needs work, it is the product of writing the book, driven by its themes. Writing, work, and meaning made a permanent structure. Until I finished a first draft I did not recognize that. Now I can stand on it.

Begun in 2010, this work is having a long gestation. As the writing and editing ends, I understand more clearly what my life is about. Soon I can move on to the next project.

More than anything, I need closure. I can see now that by Labor Day I will be ready to let it go.