Working on my book is going really well. I don’t remember ever being so focused on something in my entire life as I am right now. I can only imagine how much more intense this is going to get, as I’m only about 6,000 words into it so far.

Normally, my process goes something like this: I sit down to write a section, but then I procrastinate and look around different things for a while until I finally reach a point where I’m like, “Shit! Okay, this isn’t going to happen unless I actually start it.” So then, kind of timidly, I’ll start writing a section. Usually, the first like 4 or 5 paragraphs are just total shit. Well, not total shit, but it’s sort of me spewing out the ideas in a pretty raw form, which is probably only ultimately digestible to myself. Then, somewhere along the line, my prose starts tightening up, and I strike on a nice paragraph or two. At this point, I sit up and look around, and realize that what I’ve got now is actually a much better entry point for the ideas I’m trying to convey. So then I’ll fling that section back up to the top, and then rewrite downwards from there. Usually the original 4-5 paragraphs get totally thrown out, and the one or two good paragraphs get cannibalized.

Then I basically write straight through until I reach what feels like the end of that section. Not being especially great at endings though, I’ll usually at this point go back to the top of that section, and read it through, revising as I go. The intention is that by the time I get back to the end, I’ll be so “in the flow” that I come up with a good way to end it. If this doesn’t work, I’ll add a little something, and go back to the top again. Usually after this third (?) pass, the ending will sort itself out.

The section I’m working on tonight though has proved to be much more complex though. Earlier sections basically consist of an explanation of a concept with some short examples that I make up to support them. I’m getting to the point now though where I need to use historical examples, both to support my ideas, but also to provide information that’s useful and that adds to the overall impact. This, of course, slows down the overall writing, because then I have to go back and read a bunch of stuff and do a lot of fact checking to make sure I’m not just talking about nonsense.

Right now, I’m trying to talk about methods of version control that social groups will use to maintain a story against modification. There are four main aspects of this that I’m trying to describe:

1. Creating a fixed format for a story, that becomes the official or canonical version.
2. Having a centralized distribution system, so that you’re able to make sure that everyone is being exposed to the same canonical/official version.
3. Persecuting people who follow and distribute non-canonical versions of your story (heretics)

I had one other element also, but it doesn’t add substantially to that formula, so I may just nix it. Anyway, simultaneous to describing that, I’m trying to juggle multiple sets of historical data to support various aspects of that. I’m talking about things like:

1. The ecumenical councils of the early church which defined what was canon and what was heresy
2. The inquisitions, which formally tried to stamp out heresies
3. The invention of the printing press and how it threatened the monopoly the Church held over the production and distribution of books
4. The proliferation of digital technology, and how it threatens the monopoly of big media companies to produce and distribute cultural artifacts
5. The evolution of modern intellectual property law
6. The conceptual similarity between the inquisition and the use of intellectual property law to combat peer-to-peer file-sharing “piracy”
7. The whole idea that something analogous to the Protestant Reformation is poised to happen in the realm of contemporary media, as their power structure is subverted/collapses on itself.

Oooookay… now I can see what went wrong here. Too many cooks in the kitchen. I just got excited, that’s all, and ended up trying to sing 100 different songs all at once. What I need to do here is go in and pick these things apart piecemeal. I have an entire book to write. I don’t need to go and try to cram all that immense daunting shit into one goddamned chapter.

Some things I learned tonight about writing:

1. When you start writing into your text things about how such and such is “too complicated to explain right now” then you’re off track. Whatever you’re explaining, whatever your examples are, you should be more than able to explain them fully and simply right now.
2. Um, a bunch of other stuff too..

Well, I have to say, this actually helped diffuse my current situation a whole lot. I was started to bug out a little bit, because I knew something was drastically wrong, but I couldn’t really see just what it was. Anyway, now that I know, I ought to get back to it. Actually, I should get a bite to eat, cause it’s gonna be a late night. I’ve basically given up trying to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, because I end up just laying there for two hours thinking about my book, and then I just have a bunch of weird problem-solving dreams about it. Anyway, okay, whew!