What have I done? It’s been a little over a week, and this whole time I’ve felt as though I’m waiting for something – a shoe to drop, some sort of exhalation, something. The process of writing a story one day at a time is very different than I anticipated. There is a more obvious focus on each word, and on aspiring to clarity, both of which I think are helpful. However, it also feels a little disconnected, like writing each day in a self-contained void, without the benefit of context or flow. The only thing I can even vaguely compare it to, is playing a video game – like Mario Kart, for example. My kids are great at it; I am not. One needs to have an ability to instantly absorb the moment, to make quick decisions by projection and prediction, and to plan ahead, but ONE FRAME AT A TIME. How do kids do that? I’m the one getting nailed by the banana peels – every single time. It has crossed my mind that banana peels may be headed my way shortly here, too. Which is why part of me wants to just write the damn story, now, in its entirety. But I did this for a reason. I don’t want to fall prey to my worst writing pitfalls: plot paralysis, and its disintegration into the banal or the insipid. I love editing. It is definitely my strength. Getting a draft done that is useful to edit – that is my problem. And this format will make me stop the flavour of thinking that self-digests. It will get me a draft. Please. To modify Ernest Hemingway: Write first, edit later.