Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 15 January 2005
I knew today's section, "The A-to-Z Rule Set on Processing Politically-Bankrupt States," would be a doozy. It would cap off the first chapter that is all about deconfliction (visions of war in Pentagon, US agencies in nation-building, Core powers in shrinking the Gap) and it would be a crown jewel essay.
I wasn't sure where to start, but repeat emails from people (Safranski, Mike Downing, others) about the NIC's 2020 Mapping the Global Future doc got me going. I ended up making my read of that document the opening section of the chapter, using it as a pretext to discuss government futurology in general and how it always fails in this one crucial way that my chapter, and specifically this section, was definitely not going to do.
9,146 words later, I looked up and was finished.
Actually, I wrote 2,300 before Kev's BB game at the Y. We lost to a bigger and better team, 30-22, but we played very well and hung in there (tying at 22 all) before succumbing to a late rally. Kev was great throughout and had another bucket from down low (he's a natural post).
Then back on the PC at 3pm and typed straight until 9m. Key was spending yesterday getting my notes and blog stuff in order. God how I value the ability to search the blog! Absolutely amazing, because it's this huge compendium of references, quotes, and analysis of everything I've read since March.
This one rocked like nothing else so far. I'm not worried about length--just getting it out and having it feel good. This baby ain't no f--kin sequel, it's VOLUME II! And that feels good. For the first time so far, not only did the material feel superior to PNM but the writing did too. Mark's point so far in reading the draft was that my writing was on par with the similar point in PNM (first couple of chapters) in terms of content, and actually a bit better in terms of execution. I felt he was being kind when he said that, but not anymore. Now I feel it instrinsically. For the first time in this process, when my wife came up the stairs and asked how it was going, I gave her an unqualified "great!"
That gives me 28,200 for four sections out of 18. At this rate, 18 sections will equal about 130,000 words, when all the chapter intros are written. But what the hell, might as well have a good start on Volume III.
Off to watch some movie with the kids and hold the puppy, who is so beautiful it's hard not to look at him whenever he's in the room.
Later . . .
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