Regarding My Darling Tragedy, I had a productive October. The second journal passed 100,000 words and the end is in sight. (I’ve already written the final sentence.) While writing the second journal, I jotted down lots of notes along the way of things I wanted to happen or have characters say in the journal’s climax and closing entries. There was a lot I wanted to cover. But when it was time to finally begin writing these scenes, all I had were files of digital scraps that needed to be sorted through and put in order. Everything was so scattered that it was too much for me to manage on screen and so I printed all the pages on paper, grabbed a pair of scissors, and cut out each plot point and line of dialogue, put them all in a pile and then began arranging everything into groups. I went to two stores looking for black poster board that I could paste the ordered scraps too, but both stores only had white. I worried my scraps that had been printed on white paper would get lost visually if pasted onto white posterboard and so I really wanted something else. Luckily, on my way out of the second store, I passed their gift wrap section and saw a rack of large black gift bags. I bought some and, at home, began pasting. Each bag held a different segment of the story and with that, I now had a rough idea of the order in which the story would unfold. As I incorporated each scrap, I intended to cross them off with a highlighter, but I had recently thrown out all my highlighters because they had dried out. But guess what I did have on hand that I could use instead? Black crayons, just like Orly would use. This manual process worked and so I plan to use it again for another batch of scraps I need to sort through to order the end of the second journal.
I also reviewed all the video I took while wandering through Bucharest in May because I had to write Orly wandering there herself. That entry isn’t particularly long, but having video did help me write it. I thought I had recorded a lot, but I wish I had recorded more. However, I was self-conscious while walking among the crowds filming, and kept pressing the stop button and putting my phone away.
Finally, I also went to a ballet this month. I saw The Shanghai Ballet perform The Butterfly Lovers. I had never seen or heard of it before, and even though I went alone, I’m so glad I went. It was beautiful—the dancing, the music, the costumes, and the scenery. Witnessing beautiful art often inspires me, making me want to write better.
Anyhow, these are the things that helped shape the final entries. As the second journal comes to a close, I hope my readers will feel very in touch with Orly.