Here’s the rollercoaster of writing a book: Oh, it’s good! Oh, it’s boring! Oh oh! Awful! Wonderful! Up and down for months if not years. Sometimes you have to write a bad book to get to the good book. Sometimes you get breathless with anxiety and decide take up knitting or skate boarding or raising rabbits. You can feel this way writing anything – a short story, a personal essay, a note to the repairman: Yes! This is going to make a difference! No, it’s so dull no one will read past the second sentence!

We never know how anything in life, let alone writing, will turn out. If we had to be assured of happy endings for every endeavor we’d end up just staying in bed. We wouldn’t attempt friendships, get married, have kids, get jobs, vote. But we forge on with hope and optimism and things usually turn out okay if we work hard enough.

And another metaphor for our writing: Caterpillar goo.Before caterpillars can transform into butterflies they dissolve into their constituent elements. They become caterpillar soup, goo. And then finally they grow wings and fly.

My book, my government is currently goo. But I have hope.