The long happy work of structure.

I had a rich and lovely day today, and before I left the flat at 7:15 to go to the closing night of Uncle Vanya in town, I'd only gone as far as my pigeonhole in the college all day. Some days are like this, and they're important ones. Today the framework of this new piece grew and grew, and every time I put in a new piece of the structure, I saw three more pieces that needed places. By the original parameters of my experience, I was meant to have finished drafting the essay by Tuesday or Wednesday. I will probably need an extension from myself. But not much of one, I suspect: once the framework is in place, I'll pretend I'm writing to all of you, and perhaps the fleshing out of this one will proceed more painlessly than usual.

Today's little parable: this morning, after I washed and toweled my hair and put my morning stuff into it, I left it alone until just before leaving for the play. Just left it alone and let it do its own thing, without worry. And it looks curlier and happier today than it has for weeks. "You're trying too hard again," my brother used to say to me when I'd try to be as funny as he is. He was usually right, even if I hated to hear it.

My beloved Lexingtonian asked me this evening whether I'm planning to do the second part of the Mondo Beyondo exercise that I started last month. The answer is yes (I will, and I will follow Superhero Andrea's guidelines)--but I'm happy to say that part of the reason I've delayed has been that 2008 has, already, been my year of writing (and of realizing that for me "a year of writing" won't mean completing an essay every couple of weeks--but will mean following ideas more readily and freely than I have in the past).