So you filled your hands

It's one of those days. My boss is out today and there's very little to do (two 200- to 300-word articles for my NPO's magazine and a draft of a blog post for our website). The only creamer that's communal is this ghastly powdered kosher stuff, which means I've only been here a little over ninety minutes and I'm already contemplating a trip to Caribou Coffee. I have a manuscript to read, and if I write that here, I could be more likely to do it; I've got emails to answer, some of them shamefully old, and I've got other friends I need to write, so I should have no trouble filling the day.

This is not even counting the essays I need to start about post-apocalyptic Americana. I have seven pages of notes now, and I'm discovering all these subcategories and subgenres as I scribble, and while that's exciting, my manifesto (or whatever it calls itself) is growing into a multi-part thing of its own. I did take a good step forward yesterday, though — and it was an easy one, because it involved buying stuff. I don't have a novel in me of post-apocalyptic Americana yet, but I do have short stories. One in particular isn't leaving me alone, and I can't wait to try my hand at it. I've been thinking about National Novel-Writing Month, since it's closer than it seems, and it struck me that writing thirty 1,667-word short stories (or thereabouts) could be a great project.

Then I wondered why I had to wait for November. So yesterday I took my 30%-off-any-item coupon to Borders and bought a 50"x32" map of the United States. When I do finally skip out for lunch, I'm going to check the art supply store and see what they have in the way of foam board (cork would be more fun, but alas, I doubt the price would be good). The map is going to go up on my wall, and I'm going to close my eyes and stick pins in it. indy_go had the great idea of having guests do the same, to mix it up even more. I'm also going to make two or three envelopes that live nearby: each will have a year written on it, or an object or an occupation or an identity or a word. They'll get chosen and written about, one a day. I'm much too excited about this. There may even be pictures.

This is something of a relief from another gnawing bit of uncertainty related to The Falling Woman, which I have to sort through on many more fundamental levels. Because of the nature of the story, it requires taking a position on some metaconcepts. (Please give me a moment to recover from the fact that I just used that word in an unironic way.) I need to decide what this means for the relationship of authors and creativity, among other things, and I'm not certain about the venue. (This is in addition to other doubts: I have a marvelous setting that I'm deeply in love with, but beyond the barest of basics, both plot and characters are kind of eluding me.) It's going to be okay, but I just have to be doing something else for a while for the rest of it to come together.

In the meantime... tea excursion becoming likelier by the minute.