I finished my first draft of Walkerville Desires Book Seven last August 2018. I’ve looked at, re-read, added to, and edited the draft a little bit since then. Since mid-May I’ve been working on it seriously.
In the intervening months, I was busy working on other books and the rest of my life. Also, last August was a month before our trip to Europe.
(Gee, I hope I don’t loose the thread to this by getting all sentimental about my trip.)
I always seem to have several projects going simultaneously—at different points in the process. I create a folder for each one on my computer, with subfolders for everything about the book. For instance, I have a file called ‘Throwaways’—if I cut something out of a book, that’s where I keep it. I hate to just throwaway anything I’ve written. That line, that word, that feeling is often exactly what I need somewhere else later on.
I have separate folders for chapter titles, book covers, songs. [Oh yes, songs are very important when I write a book; some books have one song, others have multiple songs,. I have no idea why, it just is.] I also save bits and pieces of notes about a particular chapter or portion of a chapter, including how or why I re-wrote it. I have folders of background stories for my characters,; as much as I can piece together and as much as they tell me,. I hardly ever incorporate that info into the book. It’s necessary, though, for me to have it, to develop the character.
I also copy and paste pictures.
As I’ve been re-working Book Seven, going back through the materials in its file, I saw a folder titled “Arthur’s Seat”. Opening it, I found a picture with a note dated 3.18.19 saying ‘I climbed it on September 24, 2018’ and another adding, ‘I might climb it again in 2020!’
[I cross checked this with my trip journal. I have pressed a yellow buttercup that I picked during my climb to remind me of that accomplishment.]
So, all this to talk about bucket lists—which I understand are things to do before one dies. It comes from ‘kick the bucket’ which means ‘to die’. So a bucket list would include things to do before I die.
I climbed Arthur’s Seat (which is really a tall hill or very small mountain, depending on your point of view—it’s 825 feet high, rising in the center of Edinburgh, Scotland) because I wanted to. It was a personal accomplishment. It was about my quality of life. It was about me dangling the carrot in front of my own self rather than someone else dangling the carrot in front of me.
The idea of bucket lists seems wasteful. I don’t think of doing the things I do as things to do before I die.
I mean, I’m living today. I’m going to do things because I can and because I want to today.
Your thoughts?
Love, yk