When I was unable to finish (or even get very far in starting) my Spirits of Twin Peaks entry by midnight last night, I guaranteed that I can no longer limit new entries to once a day (originally the plan was for just every weekday, but that had already proven impossible). This relieves some pressure but not much, because it's still important for me to finish the series before May 21. I just don't feel comfortable writing Cooper's character study after we've already (presumably) learned new information about him. It seems to defeat the whole purpose of this series for me. Others have suggested that I focus on certain characters who are more time-sensitive and catch up with others later (perhaps those who aren't on the cast list, whose stories seem to have officially ended). That's pretty logical, but I still feel, stubbornly, that I want to proceed in order and finish the series as I started. So when I do resume, I will be publishing at least two entries a day.
When will I resume? That remains up in the air. To avoid distractions, I've forsworn Twitter until either I've either completed eleven entries or it's May 10 (somehow I suspect the latter will arrive first). My ideal would be to publish the Spirits entry on May 10, so it can stand alone for a full day (it's a big one). Then, starting the next morning, I would publish two entries a day, probably at 8am and 8pm eastern time, finishing on the evening of May 20 which would allow readers a twenty-four hour window to check it out before the premiere airs. Of course, I know people are going to be catching up with or checking back on these in the midst of the Showtime series. But still it's important to me that people at least have the opportunity to read them in relative innocence of what's to come. And as I said, it's very important to me that I not write them with that knowledge in mind.
So that means even if I can space out the workload differently, I still have to find the time to write about two a day (especially as I won't have time to do any work after May 18). I suspect it's just barely possible - if I use virtually all my non-work time to do so - but is probably a bit implausible, especially since the last few entries involve characters with hours of screentime to write about and explore.
Worst case scenario, I would jump ahead to cover at least two or three of the most important, up-in-the-air characters before the series begins.
Middle case scenario, I would streamline my preparatory approach and also simplify the entries, dumping things like "additional notes"/"deleted scenes" or even the plot summaries and just focus on the analysis, statistics (which are already complete), and images for the time being. (Maybe I'd go back and beef up the other sections later and post an update with links to the completed pieces; I've taken that sort of "cheating" approach before with placeholders).
Best case scenario, after getting over the big hump of the Spirits, I miraculously find the focus and energy to cover the remaining twenty characters in the same manner as the previous sixty-two, but working at a much faster clip.
As I await the anticipated May 9 resumption, the blog will not exactly be dormant. Starting tomorrow morning, every two days I will publish a link to a recent Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast appearance: one on the character series, one in anticipation of the upcoming premiere, and one on the politics of Twin Peaks and David Lynch. There's also at least one more Unwrapped episode that isn't quite ready yet - the hosts invited me and John Thorne to discuss The Straight Story. I'll publish that as soon as it's available (probably during the week before the premiere), which means on that day three entries will go up: two character studies in addition to the podcast. It's gonna be busy around these parts in May.
Ok, see you on the other side. Wish me luck...
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