Writing on the fly

This week I was reminded why I so rarely write review or nonfiction anymore, besides noodling here, where my phone throws up random typos that I don't catch from time to time, much as I try. 

I agreed to write the yearly roundup on a tight schedule.  I went in early to work and wrote in the coffee shop, stayed up late after a long day at work, where I write like 20 pages and read up to 1,000 pages of records a day.  I got my thoughts on the pleasures of 2014 and my Christmas mailing done.  I finally got some sleep.

And then I realized the stupid mistakes I had made, like mangling the plot of Belle because I could not remember and the reviews I googled were no help.  I misspelled Cheeky Frawg Press's name, dumb stuff like that, which is no worse than most published books or major newspapers these days.  But of course that bugs me to no end, 'cos I pride myself on clean copy. 

And worse, I totally left out one of the best books I read this year, Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, likely because I could not read the notes I scrawled on the back of a gym schedule while on the train, d'oh.  I have the ability to focus deeply for long periods of time but also have to use checklists and phone reminders due to mental disorganization and memory lapses.  It's some mental tradeoff for being able to hold a world of information in my head and manipulate it visually.  I am also a Virgo.  This combo means I do not like to agree to short deadlines where I may not get to proof a day later, after the errors come to me in my sleep...

So, ya know, I'm mentioning Bad Feminist here again.  It is an amazingly thought-provoking read.  Here's a recent sample of the kinds of essays Gay makes look deceptively effortless in the book: Roxane Gay talking about how we don't hear stories about rape and abuse well.  Here's what led me to it, another great essay summing up the journalistic fail at Rolling Stone so well. 

I wish I had time to try and write intelligent stuff for the internets, and fiction, and act up, but I have a job to do as a public servant and it ain't happening, so I'm really glad so many people are, who most likely have more intelligent, timely, and informed things to say anyway.  And access to their thoughts is so much faster than ever.  That is truly one of the great pleasures of 2014.

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