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I have been chastised by Zinger for, and I quote, "Really phoning in the blog these past few days." To which, I can offer no excuse other than the one you should already be expecting: the New Obsession.

I guess the New Obsession isn't really all that New anymore, but not sure what else to call it; my Secret Obsession might do, although that sounds like it might be a little naughty and/or dirty. Calling it my Deadline Approaching Obsession, while truthful, is a bit cumbersome. How about my Top Obsession? Primary Obsession? One Obsession to Rule Them All? Actually, I kind of like Primary Obsession, so we'll go with that for now.

What's the status of my Primary Obsession, which is still mostly secret until it’s completed, and maybe even for a while after that? Well, I would say I'm about 85.33% complete with the initial phase, give or take a few percentage points. The P.O. has waxed and waned as my brain has drained and recharged its creative capacity again and again. I'm hopeful that I can get the initial phase finished by the end of the weekend, which should give me plenty of time for revision before the probably-not-so-mysterious-if-you-think-about-it deadline.

The process of working on the P.O. has been an interesting one, on several levels, and I'll talk more about that once the whole thing is over and done with. But one thing that I will mention today is how surprisingly helpful the cassette recorder has been. Honestly, I'm almost sorry that I don't have a huge drive to make anytime soon, since I seem to do some of my best work on the P.O. when I'm on the road. Well, maybe not necessarily my best work, but I do get a lot accomplished. Now if I could just get the hang of transcribing from tape down . . .

One thing that's surprised me about using the tape recorder is how well it has spurred ideas. If I'm sitting at the computer, or sprawled out on my beanbag with my notebook, and find that I've hit a creative dead end, it might take me hours to fight my way through it, staring at the blank screen or paper. But, if I'm driving along, talking to the recorder, taking my mind off the tedium of driving, then I start to brainstorm like crazy. These sessions usually sound like this: "I'm not quite sure how I want to handle A. Do I want A to do B, or do I want A to do C? No, I don't like C, but maybe A could do D? Oh, yeah, and if D, then E, F, G, and H!" Most of my big breakthroughs on the P.O. have come about in this way; the tape recorder now accompanies me everywhere, and I've gotten a few strange looks from the folks at the fast food drive through windows over the last couple of weeks, but I don't really care, since these little jaunts have given me my fair share of ideas. Not nearly as much as the drive to and from Miamuh, or even the drive to and from the Stoneheart residence last weekend, but enough to make it worth my while.

All in all, I'm happy with the way the P.O. is turning out; it's definitely a far different beast now than it was when I was first stricken with my obsessive inspiration last month; whether anyone else will be happy with the finished product, I haven't a clue. With any luck, it won't be too much longer until I find out.

And thus concludes my second “phoning it in” post of the day; hope you enjoyed it.