What I Learned

Monday, January 16 (cont'd)

What I learned, in no particular order (and the moral of the story may not apply to anyone but me) is:

1. A book with a clear focus, like a memoir, or a nonfiction book about my high school class's 50th reunion, and how I went from jazz to bluegrass, over the years, with its questions of race and class, is more coherent, substantive, and weighty than a journal of my thoughts and feelings as I move from ambitious project to ambitious project.
2. There's a place for the journal, too, as I fall back and regroup, consolidate my gains, pause to reevaluate my progress, or ascertain my new position, and the alternatives open to me.
3. The journal may be of interest only to specialists, scholars, a biographer. But the journal found its form, the reader got to see it do that, as it happened.
4. The journal--every book, in its turn--may be of interest to the general reader who wants to witness the whole process, the complete life, of which producing art is only one part, albeit the most exacting part.
5. I'm committed to my method and it's too late to back out now.
6. Nothing may come of it, immediately. Don't get discouraged. Don't complian.
7. Do describe what you're going through objectively, if you can. It's hard to write objectively about performing vivisection on yourself.
8. Look to the lodestar and create. Many are called but few are chosen. If you can do it, do it. If you can't, quit.
9. Be grateful that you could, or can. Be thankful. It's a privilege not everyone is granted.
10. Spread the word. Shout it from the housetops. You can always change the name to I DRIVE TO FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA, and say that AFTER BLUE-COLLAR REDNECK: AN ONLINE JOURNAL (OLJ) was a working title.

Genius Hick was writing a book called READFEST 2006.

The working title had been THE CLASS OF '57 HAD ITS DREAMS, BY JACK SAUNDERS, THE SWINETTE-PICKER OF AMERICAN LETTERS.

He called the series of two books, I DRIVE TO FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA, and READFEST 2006, After BLUE-COLLAR REDNECK.

He liked to work in series. He changed titles a lot, as books morphed into different books while being written.