I Have Termites

Not me personally, of course. And, fortunately, not even in my home. Yet.

I have about 18 large and very heavy railroad ties that the provious owners of my home used to keep their dog from digging under the fence and getting into the neighbors' yards. I've been meaning to get rid of them since we moved in a few years ago and have recently discovered that termites (huge, well-organized colonies of them) have made them bases, ostensibly from which to launch coordinated assaults on my home. Like the Allies taking Okinawa, Midway, etc. to clear the way for an attack on Japan.

My friend Jerry came over and we loaded about half of them into his pickup and drove them down to a construction waste site a few miles away. During the process, I learned a few things:

1. Jerry is much stronger than I am.


2. Termites really do some impressive work - I mean, as much as I hate them as a homeowner, I can't help but admire their determination to eat through an entire railroad tie. That's like everyone in my subdivision trying to eat the surface area of Nashville.


3. When walking backwards through the yard, try not to trip over the kiddie pool while holding something that weighs over two hundred pounds.
   

Much later in the evening I got to thinking about the last book I wrote, about how it had termites in it. I was having a hard time with the book, not really enjoying writing it (first time in the genre and learning that it's not my thing.) But I was deep into it, probably 50 pages or so from having it done. I was in the middle of a scene - an early climax, to resolve a mid-sized plot item. But as I was about to have my main character say something dramatic, or have someone take a shot at her (I write on the fly often so I hadn't quite figured out how the scene was going to end) I realized that the whole scene was a termite. It was sitting in the book, taking up space, weakening stronger sections before and after it.

OK, so take it out. The problem, though, was that I had devoted a number of scenes and characters to this plot point. Taking it (them) out would mean sending the story in a different direction, not to mention leaving me much farther away from finishing the book. And since I wasn't really enjoying writing this one anyway, I actually thought about leaving it alone.

But the book would have been weak, like the railroad ties, some of which were crumbling as we lugged them over and around yard hazards. In the end, I removed the termite, as well as a number of its cousins, and had to rework almost half the book.

I still didn't enjoy the process but I'm proud of the product. When someone reads it I can be pretty comfortable with the knowledge that there are no obvious insects weakening its structural integrity.

It's in the same neighborhood as something a writer friend of mine calls "killing your darlings". Maybe I'll write on that in a future post so check back with me.