I mentioned being stuck on this chapter, well, I thought it might be useful to figure out why. Thinking for just a few minutes I came up with one possible reason, which is that this chapter introduces a character who I need to develop more fully over the course of this draft. So maybe I was aware of this chapter being important, and didn’t want to botch it? But then I remind myself it’s okay if I botch it because this draft doesn’t have to be perfect either just better overall than the first draft.

Anyway, the character introduction is fine. I’ll make it better on the next pass. This time through I’m filling in the plot gaps and rearranging stuff, next time around I’ll start polishing the prose more carefully. Onward!

And hey, let’s make this a book diary too. This morning I finished JR by William Gaddis, which instantly popped into my pantheon of favorite novels. It took a old-fashionedly huge amount of attention (I read it and nothing else over the last two weeks) but was totally worth it. It really makes me resent attention-dividing and -draining social media, how they’ve made a masterpiece like this pretty much obsolete because of how inaccessible it feels to dip into. But please read it anyway, so I have someone to talk to about it! There are some of the funniest, darkest jokes I’ve ever read in these endless dialogues, and the plot is hilariously bonkers and also weirdly timely (as it probably always will be, as long as capitalism exists).