Muddling By – Third Draft Finished

“Celebrate good times, come on!“
Hmm. Maybe that’s overstating the case. Lose the “come on” and the exclamation point, but keep the essence.
“Celebrate good times.“
The introverted part of my nature is more satisfied with that.
I finished the third draft of Muddling By (working title). Whew. Little yay.

Pardon me as I plagiarize my email to some friends. These friends are better writers than me, and I impose upon them to receive each completed draft as a file attachment in an email. It is a simple way to maintain yet another backup copy of the manuscript.

“Every day, I feel the urgency of getting the book done before we no longer have a united country. A Rollercoaster Ride Through America’s Wealth Classes (probably the subtitle) may need to be rewritten if the country fractures. Maybe that’s a sequel.

… I am planning on three more drafts. This has the majority of the content, but as I remember a quote from The West Wing, I don’t want to “forget to put the funny in.” Funny is too strong a term, but at least one draft is planned to emphasize the lighter side of some of the anecdotes. Oh yeah, and editing and formatting and grimacing and – you know – writing.“

My urgency may be unnecessary, as it may be with other existential threats like AI and climate change, but the easiest way to address it is to publish the book, in which case I should finish writing it. The advances in AI urged me on to publish Firewatcher. Now that I think of it, climate change is accelerating the urgency I have behind a photo essay I have planned for 2026. So much for leisurely writing.

As I’ve mentioned before, my fiction titles go through a series of drafts that are story related, with polishing that is different from my non-fiction titles that are content driven, though also with polishing. I guess that’s common among almost all art: polishing, polishing, polishing, then shoving it out the door. (I wonder if the people who make polishing tools have a similar polishing process for their polishing products. If you want to extend the alliteration and the analogy, you’re welcome to throw in the fact that I am half Polish, and not very polished, kind of scruffy some days.)

• The first draft was lots of words, a rapidly climbing word count.
• The second draft was fewer extra words, but filling in gaps and making sure each chapter had a similar structure.
• The third draft had fewer extra words, but more common content. Each chapter reads as more of a common publication. It could now be a book, but except by luck, I don’t think it would be a good enough book for readers to recommend to other readers.
• The fourth draft is where I intend to bring in the life, in some cases, bringing in the funny – or, bringing in the passion, or the compassion, or the sympathy, or the empathy.
• For now, the fifth draft will be exercising the thesaurus, removing repetitive passages, and making sure the chapters aren’t monotones.
• For now, the sixth draft, which may segue into other sub-drafts, will be final formatting for the right page size, font, and pagination, those innocuous things I never noticed before I started writing books.

After all of that there is still work to do for cover design and marketing.
There’s always something else to do.
With some effort and some luck, I should be done before 2026. The country may survive that long.

If my drafts were construction phases in paving a road:

• The first draft would be random planks thrown down across mud. You wouldn’t be surprised that traveling on it would be a bit messy.
• The second draft would be some sort of solid surface, maybe more like a boardwalk or a packed-earth path. It would be useful, but don’t pick at it.
• The third draft is a pile of cobblestones almost set in place. You won’t get dirty, but there are places where it’s easier to trip, or stub a toe.
• The fourth draft hopefully has the cobbles pounded into place. It could use some grout for smoothness.
• The fifth draft might actually get paved, or at least be smooth enough to use unhindered.
• The sixth draft will have been tested, swept, and had proper signage installed.

I have a lot of work to do.

That is not the preferred way to write a book. Ideally, I’d aim for something like John McPhee, Tom Bodett, Garrison Keillor, with some Jimmy Buffett thrown in. Each chapter could take months. There’d be footnotes, research, and interviews. That sounds great. Even if the country has that much time, I’m 66 and have other things to do, too. But releasing it as is would be presenting a bit of a mess that I know could be so much better. That doesn’t mean it will be much better. Maybe it will. But it is worth a try. With non-fiction, the facts are more important than the style, especially for non-fiction that addresses a current topic.

This is also a time for a short hiatus from working on the words. Ideally, again, as if ideals happen, I’d take a vacation from everything. Really, I am also working on a photo essay, Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge (the first of several Twelve Month essays in Olympic National Park); my tall ship screenplay, which is being reviewed and which awaits probably 80 million dollars in funding; the sequel to Fire Race which was the sequel to Firewatcher; oh yeah, and making progress on Muddling’s cover. Ah hiatus? Ha!

OK. Maybe I’ll fit in at least a little celebration or two at least.