Under Construction

I've heard this said of Wisconsin, too, so I know we're not alone, but Michigan has only two seasons: Winter and Road Construction. In the last few weeks I've noticed the transition. I live on a small street that never gets much attention, but it feeds onto the main east/west street in Ann Arbor, and right now for probably 15 blocks (including where our street feeds onto it) there is only west bound traffic allowed... you want to go east, you have to take the long way. Seems to me though, road construction provides a very apt metaphor for the writing process.

Original Construction

This is fun stuff. Once the land is bought, the only real problem is the diversion of the water table (read: chores). Other than that, it is just plain cool... one day you have nothing, then the foundations are laid, the structure goes into place, and then it begins to take real form. But for the sake of the metaphor, we have to assume your contractor only gets about half of it right the first time, ne? I mean SURE, it LOOKS good... but the plumbing is shoddy, the wiring needs to be recircuited... it just needs some serious help.

Reconstruction/Repairs

And here we get the the primary temptation that often hinders real progress... patches... You got a major pothole, it is tempting to just fill it in so the cars keep from falling through, yeah? Nobody wants to pay the mechanic, so you gotta do SOMETHING, but something CHEAP? Hey, why not?

HERE is why not... the foundation has been compromised. The structure AROUND it is bad and it is just all going to fall in again anyway.

Now if you are insane (as the Ann Arbor city management apparently is), or if you've built the thing on a swamp and your castle keeps falling in, you could just dig up the whole street and start over. But it seems wiser to me, in most cases, to do a careful analysis of where the weak spots are, how far the problem goes, work your way out to solid ground, and then repair what NEEDS to be repaired.

Case in Point

I've been getting feedback on these cozy chapters I hope to submit next week TO MY AGENT (STILL not getting old) and Leanne made some great suggestions on the first two chapters, which I incorporated, but I talked to her last night, she pointed out that YES, right change, but now it is BUMPY. I need to go in with my steam roller and smooth out the darned thing.

So that's what I've got today... I am working hard at road re-construction...

Tangent: I have my flag counter to the side, as you may have noticed, and I LOVE seeing where people come from. Did you know people from 41 countries have visited this blog? That just tickles me in that way I like. In the last few days I've added Iraq, Taiwan, Indonesia and Puerto Rico—how majorly cool is it to think people find you from all over the world?