Behind The Pages (A Night of Writing)

Well it's a little after 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. I'm taking a break from my book so that I can write this post. The book is going well, wonderfully slow I'd say. I'm getting down to the last couple chapters and this is satisfying and exciting. The book is much better than it was before, which is the goal of rewriting, but there is still more work to be done.

Each day, when I start writing, I go back and start working at the beginning of whatever chapter I'm working on. I check over what I've written, and then, when I get to the unedited part, I continue along with the rewriting. In this way, the chapters get read and checked many times before they are finished. The other benefit of this technique is that it helps my mind get in gear for the storytelling.

Right now I'm deep in the Death Valley chapters of the First Bike Tour (summer 2000, Seattle to Vegas). I'm telling the part of the story where Travis, Jake, and I crossed Death Valley at night on our bicycles. Death Valley in California in the summertime is a serious place. Daytime temperatures in the shade reach 120 degrees. The temperature above the road, directly in the sun, can reach 200 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course). It's obvious why we decided to cross at night. Although even at night the summer air of Death Valley hovers around 95 degrees.

As always, there are things to distract me from my writing. Downstairs, my brother and my mom are watching The Endless Summer, that classic film from 1966. Three feet to me left, sitting on a small table, is a new batch of CDs I just got from the library. I'm tempted to delve into Itzhak Perlman's 1990 recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, but for now I am able to resist. Although I do have added interest in the Concerto because my friend Phil Brezina is currently learning the piece at the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music. Phil plays the violin, and this is his first semester of grad school. Phil seems to like living in San Fran. His brother Matt is nearby, and so is Whitney, his girlfriend. The PCH goes up and down the coast. The PCT traverses the mountains. And Yosemite is only 4 hours away. Have fun, Phil (I know you will), and let me know if you happen to find a decent used violin.

I have ear plugs in my ears so I don't get distracted by the music and narration of The Endless Summer. Although I can write with background noise, I prefer not to. I've found that I work best in silence, so that is what I try to give myself.

The Death Valley chapters have been taking me a while. I'm not sure exactly how long. I don't like to monitor my progress in pages or words written. I am both stubborn and pron to being hard on myself. Quantifying or analyzing my progress has never really helped me. Some days produce more words, but other days produce more creative ideas or smoother transitions. It's hard to say which is the better day. Some days the sentences flow. And other days I seem to fight with the sentences as if they were the rusty hinges on the gates of hell.

But the days go by and the writing piles up on itself. I focus on the story that I'm telling. I try to tell it the best that I can. I proceed logically most of the time, but there are times when I find it helps to abandon logic and common sense and give in to the mad spirit of the writing. And although I am comfortable writing about the bike tours of my past, I try not to get too comfortable. There is danger in too much comfort. But the writing process is hard and slow, and the challenge and the pain are usually enough to keep the process fresh. Sometimes I sit on the edge of my chair, because it helps my posture and because I feel closer to the words.

Hiking, biking, driving, busing--these things have helped me learn to love going slow. Countless hours spent climbing up countless mountains--combined with the right thoughts--have helped me learn to love something that is hard and slow. Good writing is also hard and slow, but I'm still learning to enjoy it. It's a hard and lonely process--my mind is one of the hardest bosses that I've ever worked with. And the book is a much longer ride. Those mountains took hours to climb. This book, my first book--the first of the three books I am currently working on--has been a file on my computer for over 3 years. Not quite time out of mind, but it sometimes feels that way. I started writing the book after I graduated college, in the spring of 2005. I originally envisioned a book with three parts--one part for each of the bike tours. But the stories grew, and my writing improved, and now my plan is to separate the big book into three more traditional sized books (200 to 300 pages each). But before the books are done, before your eyes will ever see their pages, there is much more work to be done. Book 1 is progressing, and will be the first one that I finish. Books 2 and 3 have seen some rewriting and editing, but are still very much raw and in need of my attention.

And so now you know a little more about what I am doing: both tonight as well as the bigger picture. After the Death Valley chapters, I will work on the last couple chapters of the book. There's a lot of pressure over beginnings and endings, but I'm trying to stay cool. I remind myself that there need not be any new horses. The same ones that have been running though the book are the same ones that will be there at the end. I simply have to wrangle them up and call them home. Or maybe I need to set them free.