Glamour

Oh, how enjoyable. My sister tells me her stepdaughter met a staff writer for a Famous National Magazine recently, and has thus decided she also wishes to join the ranks of such a glamorous profession. This news comes to me in the middle of my own morning of working glamour, for this is how the writerly day goes in my world: I am puzzling over the manuscript of the Main Book I'm trying to work on, let's call it Book #1. This morning I tossed the entire first chapter of Book #1, then reconsidered and hauled it back, turning Chapter One into an introduction. This left a hole where Chapter One used to be and nothing to move into its place, which in turn left me with the horrid realization that now I would have to compose an entirely new Chapter One to put there. I reconsider again: is it worth turning my attention to the Lesser Book, Book #2? Well, yes, but I am determined to see it out, so a new Chapter One, Book #1, it is. This in turn was going to require some serious mental work, so I went outdoors and cleaned up a month's worth of dog poo out of the yard, came in and washed up and made some tea, remembered I had to go to the post office, came back upstairs and checked my email. I moved some other chapters around in the book then, and added notes for a new chapter twelve which at this point is still so far away that it may as well be a theoretical point on Einstein's event horizon. I decide I have managed to do a lot of work, cleverly giving Book #1 an introduction, moving the line-up around a bit, inventing a whole new chapter. I sit still long enough to write 250 words of my new Chapter One, which is as far as I get before I can't stand it anymore and have to use the word count function of my program to see just how far it is I've gotten. I decide my quota for the day will be 2500 words, so I'm a tenth of the way there. There are still no email messages and it must be nearly time for lunch. I stop to write this blog entry. I don't know how the glamorous staff writer for the Famous National Magazine conducts her day; you can see how mine has gone. I should put on red lipstick and high heels. And let me add that truthfully, and without the slightest bit of irony, I consider this a good day's work.