Progress

I now have finished rewriting Chapter Three. The usual grammatical and spelling errors have been found, but the number of content errors have surprised me.

For example, I am amazed that in the heat of writing I would rename a character, combining two names into one. Perhaps I knew it at the time but was so anxious to complete the scene that I went on, never coming back to correct it.

I also trap myself with the age of characters: "Ten years ago when I was when I was eight, my life changed in a dramatic way ... " Well yeah, I guess it would!

And then my most annoying trick -- highlighting a paragraph because something is wrong with it, but continuing to write without resolving or noting the reason because I'll always remember that. Then I rediscover the paragraph weeks later and am not be able to recall the reason I highlighted it. Did I want to move it, reword it, consider pitching it -- argghhhh.

I shouldn't rely upon my memory, anymore. When I taught history for three years in the mid 1960's, my memory was crisp and focused. I often worried then that education simply rewarded good memories and that I had gotten through because I had a really good one.

Much of my time today is spent going to a room in our house, stopping and trying to remember what I went there for.

"Life must go on; I forget just why." ~~ Edna St. Vincent Millay, American Poet, 1892-1950, and first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.