Time to collect the thoughts on collections

53 posts about collections so far - I really didn't think I'd have so much to say on the matter. Though the idea of a book was suggested fairly early on by someone, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

At this point, I need to collect together what I've written, and try to figure out how to assemble it in some sort of order. The easiest way to tell a story is in chronological form, but there are some of the essay concepts that don't lend themselves to a chronological telling. "Collecting from the Dead", for example, is a concept issue that involves stories from several different months. Spread out, they do not speak as clearly as assembled.

I also need to make sure I've covered everything, and I'm not re-telling stories. As my wife has pointed out to me, I have a habit of re-telling the same stories without realizing that I've told them before. I've tried to be mindful of this, checking stories to make sure I haven't gone over territory before in other posts. Mostly I've been surprised to find I haven't told a story before - after 53 posts, I thought I must have repeated myself somewhere.

The two items I haven't really covered yet are initial training and colleagues (with the exception of the two in "The Unintentional Poet"). Colleagues I think will fit better in an overall "arc", and initial training seems to be a good place to start the writing of the actual book. Therefore, it is time to begin the task of writing the book and assembling the blog posts.

So to anyone who has been following the series, I have a couple of questions. Are there any areas you thought were unclear or needed expanding on? Anything you feel was left unanswered? I have one former colleague who has been reading this, and she made me promise that she could read the book when I wrote it. But if anyone has any suggestions, I'm more than open to them.

This is also to say that future posts probably won't have a whole lot to do with collections - I think for blog posting, I've mined that vein about as far as it will go. Future ones will probably still have to do with various past jobs, as I'm enjoying reflecting on them as I try to figure out where to go for a profession at this point.