The List
Mike wrote yesterday about cutting down the list and it got me to thinking about the phrase "The List." For my well-published novelist friends, that can only mean one thing — making THE LIST. The phrase always has the unspoken initials NYT inserted between the two words.
But for boat owners like us, The List means that long list of projects that seems to grow ever longer no matter how hard you work. Although I was an English major and math is not my strongest subject, I do understand that if you add two items for every one you delete, you are never going to get to the end of that list. And on boats, one item on a list often entails much more than it would appear.
For example, I had on my list the one item — Install vent in chart table door. My battery charger is located in the cabinet under the chart table and it creates too much heat in that confined area. I was tired of having to crack the door all the time to vent the heat. I had purchased a pre-made teak louvered insert, but of course, my jig saw was in storage. If I go to the storage unit, I need to make a list of everything I need to pick up while I'm there. Then I get out my spare jar of stainless screws to see if any one of them will fit and of course none will, so now I must stop by the hardware store en route to the storage locker. At the storage unit, I can't find the saw, so I need to repack and reorganize for an hour or so. When I finally get back with my saw and my screws, and I take all my gear onto the dock to make my cuts and drill my holes, I discover that my tube of wood glue is dried solid. Tools go back on board and the dog and I climb into the car and head back to the hardware store. And so it goes. At the end of the day, the list is one item shorter, but two items longer, and even I can see where that math is headed.
There is yet another very important list in my life: my revision list. While writing my novels, I try to press on moving the story forward each time I'm able to sit down at the computer. Of course, throughout my day, and literally through all these years, more ideas are constantly popping into my head for ways to revise what I've already written. I keep a list. My revisions list.
I throw everything that seems to be important onto that list. Sometimes, it is something as simple as an added character trait, and I go back and layer in a preference in dialogue for certain words or tastes. But at other times, it's as bad as a sailor's multiple trips to the hardware store. Sometimes the items on that list go back and change things early in the story that will reverberate in hundreds of ways throughout the novel. I don't even know how to do the math to calculate the hours that it takes me to deal with a single change on page 22 of a 500+ page book. And often, as I go through making the changes in all the places where this new direction takes me, I encounter road blocks. So, I go back to my list and add another couple of "quick fixes" that I will need to do to maintain continuity.
Most sailors know someone who never ventured out of port because he never reached the end of his list. There comes a point for all of us when we realize the list will never end. We must just throw off the dock lines and go.
The metaphor seems obvious on the surface, but letting go of that book is even harder sometimes. If the plumbing and electrical don't hook up just right, the circuits won't close, the water won't flow and the book will be dead in the water. I continue to believe that this is a list I can conquer. I'll let you know when I'm ready to launch.
Fair winds!
Christine
