What now? is the question that writers who are thinking inductively are constantly considering. Or, if they aren’t, they should be. Those writers who are thinking deductively have the answers up front. Their subsequent ideas support this premise. Those of us who are showing our readers the path of our thinking, we have to sometimes trust the fact that the subconscious will rise to the occasion and assist us in answering this question, repeatedly.

There are the little “what nows,” the ones that come up on the writerly day to day basis. For instance, in my working on the U-Haul chapter, which I renamed but forgot the name of. The what now today – do I include in this chapter the section about the Church of the Hoarders who had a lot of junk in a small space – a space I wanted for my books. (I can’t bring myself to use the word junk here). Way too good to leave out, for sure, but where do I put it?

And I found myself thinking ahead to the next chapter – I originally wanted to call it the Mat-Su Senior Services chapter, but then I had an ah ha moment while brainstorming in my notebook – this was during the Lions Club Meeting. It was to call this the Outreach chapter. Here now, I’m going to write about the senior center and my involvement and as well The Friday Fling, the Reading Rendezvous, the Alaska Baseball tournament, The Alaska Science of Reading Symposium, and the Emergency Preparedness Fair.

I then took further notes. I will next have a chapter on the Meeting House and my struggle to keep things going. All I can think of right now is that I was moving a lot of books around, and in my mind, for no apparent reason. We got the basement room, but it was soon filled with books. We did search for another place, and finally, the hotel option materialized.

So there, I have a good start on the two upcoming chapters. I considered the what now question and my subconscious provided directives.

There is another what now coming up. My biographer, Christopher Benson has agreed to read my draft. I am now wondering at what point I’ll send it to him. I am thinking that I’ll do another revision of the first two thirds of this book, then send it on to him. I picture him sitting there, twiddling his thumbs, wondering where the draft might be. It may be a while, but I want to keep his interest, so I have to be further along than I am right now.

What now? At what point do I start to work on the proposal? I know there are advantages to self-publishing, but I want to work with a reputable publisher, one who has expertise in all phases of production.

What now? Indeed, if I do not think I have an idea as to how to proceed, well then this is because I need to take a break.

I could use two weeks at a writer’s colony and do nothing except work on this book. I would then be able to answer the what now questions more quickly.

Next: 17. 1/17/24: Why Can’t we all Get Along?