I have been entrusted with the taxes of a couple of total strangers, with a complex return. This was a referral from a friend from my leadership class. I met with them this evening, at their home elsewhere in the neighborhood, and they are quite nice, good people to work with. I wouldn't call them especially organized, but it beats the upholstery shop.
I also replied to the ad for Spanish teachers I mentioned yesterday. I feel like I'm going out on a limb, but it's a good feeling. And the more fingers I have in more pies, the better off I'll be in case things happen to the jobs I have. The rickshaw place is still in flux right now, and who knows how soon I'll be back to two days a week.
In the meantime, the novel is still not progressing. I was thinking about exactly what story I want to tell here. I considered whether I wanted to try to boil the story down to the likes of a fairy tale - once upon a time there was a king who was very sad, and he called on his adviser for counsel, that sort of thing - and figure out what I'm aiming to say, then clothe it in more words. Part of my impatience with fiction these days is the nagging feeling I have that most stories don't really need that much space to be told. I'm only around 15,000 words and I feel like I've engaged in furious padding, digressing, and/or infodumping to get to that many. Aesop had the right idea, get in and get out, I think. I concede that six words just might be too few, but that's as far as I'm willing to go in a mood like this.
I also replied to the ad for Spanish teachers I mentioned yesterday. I feel like I'm going out on a limb, but it's a good feeling. And the more fingers I have in more pies, the better off I'll be in case things happen to the jobs I have. The rickshaw place is still in flux right now, and who knows how soon I'll be back to two days a week.
In the meantime, the novel is still not progressing. I was thinking about exactly what story I want to tell here. I considered whether I wanted to try to boil the story down to the likes of a fairy tale - once upon a time there was a king who was very sad, and he called on his adviser for counsel, that sort of thing - and figure out what I'm aiming to say, then clothe it in more words. Part of my impatience with fiction these days is the nagging feeling I have that most stories don't really need that much space to be told. I'm only around 15,000 words and I feel like I've engaged in furious padding, digressing, and/or infodumping to get to that many. Aesop had the right idea, get in and get out, I think. I concede that six words just might be too few, but that's as far as I'm willing to go in a mood like this.