Productivity

Yesterday I spent many hours on airplanes. For all that we've improved modes of transportation amazingly in the last century, it still takes a very long time to get across the country. Long being a relative term, of course.

Usually I read on planes. I am a voracious reader and love nothing more than several hours with a good book. Planes are a good excuse for indulging in this pleasure as there's really not a whole lot else to do.

Yesterday, however, I decided to spend the time writing instead of reading. I had thought about bringing my laptop with me, in fact, to make the process easier. But that would have either meant bringing fewer clothes - um, no - or bringing a bigger suitcase. Since I was also trying to avoid having to check a bag, neither was a good option. So I went with the old-fashioned way - pen and paper.

I'll be honest. I mostly slept on the first leg of my journey. It had been a short night and I was tired. It's a short hop to Chicago anyway. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Still, I did start to lay out the timelines for the real stories for the two guys about whom I have not written. I have a terrible memory for time and events so I needed to figure out the sequence. It was not easy and I'm still not sure it's right.

On the second leg, from chicago to palm springs, I broke out the pen and paper and began to actually construct a chapter. I went with the third chapter of the series I have already started. I finished the real story the other week. And I was about a third of the way through the "bad" take on alternative events. What would have happened if things had gone wrong. So it seemed like a good place to start on the plane ride with the "good" side - what would have happened if everything had worked out.

It's an interesting process this reimagining of my life. The first question is at what point to branch off and start an alternative history. And then thinking about what would have had fo happen to make the alternative history good or bad. The bad is actually easier to come up with. In part, because the original history has the seeds of discontent. Easy to sow those seeds into more. It's harder to figure out what would have had fo happen to make the tale come out well. The compromises or changes in circumstances.

And yet, once I got started yesterday, the good flowed pretty easily off the end of my pen. I got 20 pages written, and I'm only up to the proposal.

Since people writing long hand is something of a dying art, I got a few questions from my fellow passengers. Was I writing a letter? A paper? Or what? When I said I was writing a book, I got the inevitable question about the topic. So I talked about my topic. Life reimagined. What would happen if I'd taken different paths. I didn't get into the specifics of the paths. But the idea seems intriguing to most people. I think most people can relate to the idea of what might have been. The fact that I'm focusing on the men in my life will either add to the interest or not.

So I was pleased with yesterday's productivity. And my hand is really sore.