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Back from camping. Wasn’t sure where to start. So, I revised and finished a draft of a few notes. Imagine Second Fieldwork / Writers, Agency, and Control? / An impromptu method, not a scientific one. Posted to the newsletter.

Writing while camping is not easy. I did a few posts, but it’s harder to find the time to focus. Also, being of the computer makes things much slower.

It’s been a month since I started this, and I’ve sent 60 of these notes. Not nearly 100%, but much better than I had before. I’ve also got about 31,000 words. I’m going to keep at it, for another month. See where I get to.

It’s Friday. I went camping from Monday till Thursday. Lots of driving. Tadoussac in Quebec was spectacular. I had no idea. What was the consequence? I edited a long piece before I left, which was something I’d written a few months ago, but I edited and finished it. It was likely a chapter, 8,000 words. This morning, I posted two short pieces, again that I’d already written and revised. These were 1,500 words.

The point isn’t always new words.

Nor is it to beat yourself up for “missing” three days. But it’s to come back to it.
For both what I wrote today and what I “wrote” on Monday, I didn’t go back to my fichero to find notes to bring similar text together. I’ll need to do that. But I suspect it’s going to be an editing step at some point.

But for now, in the midst of summer holidays, helping students finish their thesis, prepping for the term, I’m posting regularly enough to 789 Serialized, and I’m making some steady progress on the Atarraya book.

I think back to Craig Mod’s early posts, and I realize on Things Become Other Things, which inspired me for this mad rule. And I realize, I’m in the even earlier stage than he was when he started. I’m still doing the daily writing, as he would do one of his long walks. In short, a book is more like a steady accreditation of pieces than a rush. So I need to keep resisting the urge to rush.

This is a three for one day. I wrote, but didn’t post a piece two days ago. Didn’t post yesterday. So, this morning I posed what I wrote, revised one from yesterday, and did one from today.

I’m caught up. But, behind.

Today’s post, another quick one. This time, on Trying to Get Ahead. The process is working well. Find a topic in the notes, don’t think too much. Bring all various notes on the same topic together. Read it. Delete duplication. Find a first order. Edit it. Work out a better order. Cut. File notes that don’t find in a too code folder. Revise. File. Post. Update the writer’s log. Move on. All this, after a morning stacking firewood. A good day.

A post a day, without too much forethought. That seems to be my mantra these days. I did a bunch on Fichero late last night, and this morning did some work on a GUI. But, then I had a swim, and then sat down around 4:00 pm to do my words for the day. I edited about 1500 words. It’s good. The part on self help for writers. Tomorrow, I’ll do something else. But, for now. I’m happy that I’m making steady publications, and the words aren’t so bad.

Edited a short piece on writing short, then a longer piece on AI as a tool for writers. Not much more. Craft and cutting.

Tomorrow, thesis and book section. My goal. Get of the computer today.

More revising. It’s feeling quite workman like. Which I love. What section am I working on? Decide. Where are my notes? What have I already written about this? What is duplicated text from various drafts? What ideas go together? Put them together in a drat. Cut, edit, reorder. Rewrite. Rewrite. I’m done. Rinse and repeat. Repeat.

Today, I did a section on Wendy Belcher’s brilliant book, Revising Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks (525 words), and then a paragraph on books on grammar (215). Plus, a bit of a critique (95 words). And a paragraph on what this book is not (100 words.) Doesn’t seem like a lot. But, but it’s good.

I think tomorrow I can go a lot faster.

EasyFind and BBedit are the tools for this.

I’ve been revising, editing, and removing duplication for the Reader’s Guide. A section basically summarizing some of the excellent work out there that is how-to advice for writers. Of course, this book is no how-to book. But sometimes it’s important too know what you are not.

Also, spent a bit of time working on a script that integrates Bookends to CiteProc with Marked. Works wonderfully. You can write with Bookends in Markdown, and get back CiteProc, or move it to Word or Mellel. Took some fiddling, but I’m very happy. It’s perfectly formatted, Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition for books.

I’m not good at this daily writing. But, yesterday, while I didn’t do a blog post, I did do a lot of coding in the morning. Today, I did as well. A Reader’s Guide section, on this book as not self help, which of courses summarizes lots of the books I’ve read over the years.

But, I’m really excited of the process. Bring together text, code it, cut repetition, organize it, write it. It’s working.

Today, I did 1800 good words. Plus, coded 30,000 words down to 20,000. This week I can just go through and cut, edit, delete, them into shape.

Progress. At last.

Took Sunday off. So much for posting every day.

In any case, today I sat down with a yellow legal pad, a newfangled old-fashioned typewriter, and thought about the form of this book. What exactly do I mean by a castnet, an atarraya?

The form? A book of essays, that re woven together. Each is about 20 pages long. Give or take. No more or less than 17 and 25.

Doing that, forcing my self to slow down, was enough to let us sketch out the “spokes” or “radial threads” of a castnet. There are eight. These are probably going to feel very much like chapters. In the centre, there’s the Reader’s Guide. Outside that, on the first rung, we have the crisis on the linoleum, that will fead into the 8 chapters. It will be an interlude between each chapter. Then we have the threads: First and Second Fieldwork, Time and Money, Tools, Rules, Fichero, Bricolage, Makeshift, and Ambulatory Anthropology. Each thread has related scenes and arguments. Acknowledgements will come at the end.

Perhaps length and argument something like:

• Reader’s Guide (atarraya as social conversation) (2,000)
• Crisis on the Floor (writing is the hardest part of the deal) (7,000)
• 1. First and Second Fieldwork (cane toad) (7,000)
• 1. Time and Money (room of one’s own) (7,000)
• 1. Tools (panning into various tools for writing) (7,000)
• 1. Rules (mad rules (e.g. 789 serialized and don’t break the chain ) for writing) (7,000)
• 1. Fichero (mining into zettklekasten) (7,000)
• 1. Bricolage (workshop and improvise) (7,000)
• 1. Makeshift (workshop, and good enough mastery of non-mastery) (7,000)
• 1. Ambulatory Anthropology (embodied writing) (7,000)
• Acknowledgements (2,000)

Say, (2000×2)+7,000+(7,000×8 chapters) + 2,000 notes + 2,000 citations = 72,000 words.

I spent the first 2 hours doing that, and then 2 hours putting it into Tinderbox.

Structure is the hardest part of the deal. I was inspired with writers method of working long hand, with a pencil, and retyping.