Friday, July 26, 2013

Obstacles and Revisions

A summer update:

There was little time to write in the Spring, and much of the Project underwent revision as I considered audience and a much more PG-rated version of the story I'd had in mind.

Postcards were written.  Half of them were sent.

Caches were ordered.

And then the research began.  Geocaching.com will only upload coordinates if one has the permission of the landowner.  I had hoped to hide a piece or two in LeClaire Park.  No problem, right?  Email the City of Edwardsville and ask permission to locate a story cache.  But the City of Edwardsville says they don't allow geocaching, and Geocaching.com won't allow me to upload a GPS coordinate without permission.

Le sigh.

I'm hoping to secure permission from some property owners I know, but that will entail more revision -- the location dictates the story, and the story has to resonate with the geography.  

On the upside, though, it's an interesting formal constraint, like writing a sonnet or a villanelle.  I like writing to deadlines (though you wouldn't know it from this project!), and word counts, and prompts and forms.  It intrigues me that local ordinances will dictate the flow of this piece as much as the landscape, as much as my mind.  Saying Yes to the Universe in sunny Edwardsville, yours always, dear reader,

G