Muddling By – Second Draft Begun

I almost titled this post Justifiably Reprimanded, but that can apply to anything. More correctly (Almost) Justifiably Reprimanded was possible, but too many syllables. I’ve started working on the second draft of Muddling By, which partly explains my recent delay in posting. A reader justifiably reprimanded me for not keeping everyone informed about the book’s progress. It seems that in this era of oligarchy, there is interest in a rollercoaster ride through America’s wealth classes.

I admit to some urgency. Many of my books have had external influences encouraging prompt publication. I’ve been planning this book for years. I knew it was possible that something as fundamental as the seemingly eternal organization called the United States of America was never really eternal, but I didn’t expect that “A Rollercoaster Ride Through America’s Wealth Classes” had such an immediate a chance of becoming a historical chronicling of a dysfunctional system. The possibility is always there for any human institution, but the probability has significantly increased. I feel like I have a deadline of several months instead of a couple of years.

For burgeoning readers, here’s how frequently this has been the case for me.

Just Keep Pedaling
I finished the ride. Didn’t plan on writing a book. After my friends convinced me that it was a good enough story, I wanted to finish before another similar book would be published.

Twelve Months at Barclay Lake, Lake Valhalla, Merritt Lake
The first book convinced me that I could write a better book, so I did, but I was aware that the notion of a twelve-month study could be easily co-opted, and that Washington’s Cascades are about more than one lake, so I wrote about a lake per year for three years.

Dream. Invest. Live.
Friends, again, convinced me to write a book, this time about personal finance and retiring at 38 years old. Fine. Take my time – but by chance, I met Vicki Robin, best-seller author of Your Money or Your Life, and she encouraged me to join her in releasing her next edition and my book at the same time. Deadline!

Walking Thinking Drinking Across Scotland
The only book that had no deadline – except that I needed money (note the irony), so the sooner, the better.

Kettle Pot Cup
No deadline! Yeah. It can happen!

Firewatcher, Fire Race
Finally, science fiction, something in the future, or at least in the near future, so there’s no need to rush. Except that, the technologies that some thought impossible, that others thought were expected in 2100, that I thought were likely by 2040, started emerging during the pandemic. Write fast!

So here I sit, taking a break from writing the book to write this post, and that’s okay. Trying to outguess the world is a recipe for insanity, or at least I think so.

But as I mentioned, a reader wanted an update, so here we go.

I started the second draft of From Middle Class to Millionaire to Muddling By. Yay! 

I’ve chronicled my progressions through my drafts of my science fiction series. In them, I start with a story idea, build it out, fill in the logic and science holes, color the human parts, then polish until necessary – or driven to finish by a self-imposed deadline.

In non-fiction, I collect thoughts as small essays, assess whether they cover the topic, fill in missing topics, then go through and begin bringing them into a similar style and voice.

So far, Muddling By has about two dozen topics. Each topic is a separate chapter, but each was written without worrying about a common style. That gave me about two dozen opportunities to try different structures and voices. The second draft will be rewrites, always rewrites (until near the end), but also a reformatting of each chapter until they all look similar. 

Except for the intro and exit chapters, the topic chapters will be edited into three main sections: conventional sound bites about the topic, general discussion of each topic from the viewpoint of muddling by to middle-class to millionaire, and a section about the specifics of my ride on the rollercoaster. I’ll leave the descriptions of life in the poorest and richest situations for others because, while I’ve been poor, I recognize how much worse it can get, and while I’ve been rich, I have seen how radically different oligarchs lives are.

On a practical level, all of those chapters were written in one long text file, no formatting. It is too easy for software to ‘help’ by adding hidden characters to make everything look pretty, but those extra bits can confuse competitor’s software. Text to start, then upload into something fancy for the last draft or two.

Then, print. I printed out the chapters, each starting on a new page break, onto three-hole punched paper, and printed out a separate sheet that is the Table of Contents. I marked up the Table to better arrange the topics, printed that out, shuffled the pages into the improved order, and created a new file for the second draft with the chapters pasted in as per the new order.

That’s where I am as I type, mostly. I’m skipping some details. My intent is to edit the topics in public so I can hear, overhear, but not actively eavesdrop on conversations. I want to make sure the vocabulary and style isn’t so narrowly me that it becomes hard for others to engage with. My intended audience is all three: muddling by, middle-class, millionaire. They each have valid perspectives that deserve the common respect we each are due. Sitting in public is a reminder of those other perspectives, even ones I’ve had. The practicality of that notion is flawed in a small town. I tend to work in the evenings, too, and coffeeshops shouldn’t be treated like offices to the extent that I’ll need. That’s what libraries are for – not, but close. In a Big City, it is probably easier to find 24/7 spaces, but my favorite places for tea are a coffeeshop and a tea shop which are both closed by 5PM. The library is open until 7PM, I think, but I am frequently writing much earlier and later. It’s a goal and a guideline, not a rule.

And natural interruptions happen. Soon we’ll have nicer weather, so I hear, so it is time to head off to the bike shop to pick up my cleaned and freshly-maintained bicycle. Nothing is everything, that includes writing. Gotta live.

And, and, remember, keep writing because, if you don’t, your readers might notice. Be nice to your readers. Good advice, be nice.

And, and, and gotta write a post tomorrow for my oldest blog, TrimbathCreative.net, about a temporary ten-bagger; and sometime soon, one for my tiny house blog, MyTinyExperiment.com, about using a car as a garage; and by then, there’ll probably be another podcast episode for IntriguingCreativity.com. Whew.