Total Pageviews

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Dig Goes On...

A few months ago I wrote a blog about the changes going on near my home. Trees were chopped down (they weren't very big to begin with) shrubs were pulled up and railroad tracks were removed. Also removed was tons of dirt which were placed in a lot just north of us. Neighbors on the north side of the building had a perfect view of the thirty foot high mounds of dirt. It was like watching a child play with a toy bulldozer, setting it on top to flatten out the soil.
Eventually workers took a crany-type jackhammer and broke down a concrete wall facing the street. I remember looking at that wall as a child. Now the wall was cracked and crumbling with chunks of concrete missing. It wasn't long before a huge crane was setting into place sections of pre-made concrete slabs. When they were all in place and the inside of the wall painted black (to seal it agains collected moisture) and a marker of sorts for depth.
The dump trucks began making return trips bringing back all the dirt they had so carefully hauled out. I watched them pile it up again to fill in the area they had cleared out months earlier. Most of it is up to the edge of the black paint on the inner wall. Closer to the corner, the earth has been carefully packed until it's high enough and stable.
Once all that was accomplished, the trestle was brought in in pieces and put into place to bridge the street. I've been watching the men make sure all the parts are lined up properly before welding everything together. A couple of cranes that were brought in for the job must reach a height of fifty feet from the ground. One crane was turned just right and reminded me of a very tall giraffe with a very long neck.
I don't know how much they have left to do but I do know the train station is going to be where all those tons of dirt rested for a while. The whole process has been, and still is, fascinating but I can hear you asking...What does this have to do with writing?
It has more to do with revamping old stories. Sometimes we write things, aren't happy with them and just tuck them away somewhere to be forgotten. Eventually we think about it again, pull it out and make plans to tear down and rebuild. Hopefully, the rebuilding process is worth the effort. When my commuter train (not mine really...belongs to the state and federal goverments) is an expensive deal and the funding may be hard to get at times, our old project is paid for in the time we invest in it. The original ideas are, hopefully, sound and will succeed with updating. The trestle is the bridge between scenes without which the story would collapse. We are the cranes, moving scenes here and there until every one is in its proper place...and sometimes that requires a great deal of work.
I can look down the street just south of here and see how much the view has changed. It's nothing like it once was. The same goes for the story. You can keep the basic ideas intact but it might take major changes for it to succeed and go where you want it to. But when you've finished, you can look back and say, "Job well done."