"The Last Leaf"

These trees were blazing with color last week, but gusts and blustery storms and frigid temps have shorn them of their glory. SOOC.

As I took this pic I was remembering the famous 1907 story, "The Last Leaf" (short, and well worth a read here). It's by O. Henry, the author of the even more famous story "The Gift of the Magi." Old-fashioned in style, but the ending still made me cry.

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NANOWRIMO REPORT

Most writers produce what author and writing teacher Anne Lamott calls "sh*tty first drafts" requiring much editing and revising. A few—I believe Joyce Carol Oates is one—write a sentence, polish it until it gleams, and then go on to the next sentence. My path is the sh*tty one.

Part I of my 500-page novel is 50 pages long. I started revising it (again) this NaNoWriMo. I marked up the pages in red and thought, All I have to do is put these edits in and go on to Part II. Hah! There's many a slip twixt the red ink and the .doc! I added, revised, and—agonizingly—cut. It's so hard to kill your darlings, but needs must.

Finally I produced another version and went back to the Prologue, the first three pages. Rewrote and revised, edited and cut, again and again, day after day. Each time I thought I was done, I would read from the beginning and find more things to fix. Round and round, like a hamster on a wheel. At last I got to the place where I thought it was done and printed it. Found another problem, printed again. And a third time. Maybe now?

Yesterday I had tea with my yoga teacher after our asana session. She showed me her gorgeous book of photographs of Angkor Wat, and I read her my first three pages. She loved them. She had read my entire book in August and could see how much the opening had changed, how much better it flowed. She felt completely satisfied, and so did I.

Then I sat down to give it one final look before pronouncing it done, and found the word "dedicated" appearing in two consecutive sentences! Fix and reprint. Take another look. Oops. Fix and reprint.

I think I've nailed it now. Six-tenths of one percent FINISHED!!!

How far will I have gotten when the last leaf falls?