FROM THE WRITER'S DESK

It is with many misgivings that I close out my writing week and with it the current chapter. This is the chapter on cataloging, and struggling with it has put me a whole week behind in my schedule. I AM a cataloger and have been for more than twenty years. Now I'm trying to explain cataloging in simple terms to non-catalogers, and can't seem to see the forest for the trees. I've been writing, excising text, rewriting, simplifying -- so my folder of "rejected text" is larger than the text that I have saved. I ended up with a mediocre draft, and I hope if I put it aside for a while -- distancing myself from it will give me some clarity to continue.

The chapter I begin tomorrow is on legal & ethical issues in oral history. In contrast to the last chapter, I know nothing about this one. In fact nobody does. There is very little legislation that applies to oral histories, and even less case law, which is supposed to apply legislation to real life. Everybody asks about it but no one likes to give answers, so here I plunge in trying to come up with some standards and best practices.

One not-so-good writing week, but a new one on the horizon. Just another day in the life of a writer.