So, now Barack Obama is setting up his barackracy, his Cabinet, his appointments. He has from November 5th until his inauguration - approximately two and a half months. (BTW, I think the photo of Rahm Emmanuel whispering in his ear is hawt!)
I, on the other hand, am writing my novel in a month. My normal pace is breakneck, take no prisoners, collapse exhausted into bed at the end of the day stressful. When I sit down to write, I write like my novel is another check mark on my daily to-do list at first. I want to get through the scenes as quickly as possible. After the first year of my novel time flew by in only three pages, I realized I needed to take things a lot more slowly.
So, I take more time to live the imaginary moments more. I describe more. I think about what surrounds my characters, about what they see, touch, smell, hear and feel. In an odd, yet real way, writing fiction is like living more than one life.
Still, I think Obama's job is harder now. He has to pick advisers who can help us out of our quagmire. He not only has to judge someone's competence and character, he has to see around corners to predict if the adviser's skills are actually applicable to the problems we face.
Even though I'm writing a book in a month, I can just invent a character and competence level I need for my story, a much easier task even though I have less time.


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