« 080: Notebooks | Main | 082: Cryptoprophecy » April 19, 2004

081: Progress Report

I'm just about finished with a draft of Chapter 5 of this iteration of the BOOK OF LIES and progress is, well, moving. In comparison with the speed at which I used to work, it's a glacial pace but it is forward progress nonetheless. There are a number of reasons for the pace, the primary of which is that I've been busy killing myself with sugar. It's an insidious way to go, stuffing your pie hole with donuts and bits of cake -- "Mmm, tasty poison!" But I seem to have finally gotten my head wrapped around the solution and the reversal of my misfortune is progressing apace.

It's a pretty simple equation really; it just took some effort to get started. Entropy and all that. I have a predeliction for entropic activity. And sluggishness leads to more sluggishness -- the entropic equation of increasing gravity at work. However, putting a rocket up your ass and lighting the short fuse is definitely a way to break free of the gravity well that leads to Obese and Dead Of Coronary Disease at 40. One of the benefits of breaking away is the clarity of mental effort.

It's been pretty apparent for awhile that I've been working from a shortened vocabulary. It's been frustrating -- immensely so -- because I'm aware that I'm running at less than 100%, but there just hasn't been anything that I could do about it (well, there was and is, but, you know, that entropy thing again). Once the sugar levels dropped, the synaptic connections to those lost parts of my brain reengaged and dusty, unused places started working again.

I get up in the morning at a bit before 5.00am which means I've got to be supine and nestled under the covers by 11.00pm. Last night, I was lying there at 11.30pm, and my brain was still firing. This is the witching hour -- that time of night when everything is possible and I used to be able to write for two hours straight and not remember doing any of it, but being genuinely pleased and surprised when I read back over the material the following day. This is the time of finger-burning delight, when you just channel all the energy still resident in your shell right down through your arms and fingers.

I put a cap on all that freneticism, saving it for another day. It's nice to know that it's there. Not all progress is pure word count. It's been quite out there; I hope the rest of you are finding ways to bring yourselves out of winter hibernation and getting back to creative work.

Posted by Teppo at April 19, 2004 08:07 PM

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