Today was a long day. I was revising. Wait...is that first sentence right? Today...long day...Is that OK? Correct? Adequate?

There's only so much revising revision I can do before the sentences every sentence looks scrambled. I move the back of the sentence to the front. That's still awkward so I remove two words here and put another word there and slide that phrase over. That's no good either.

Every sentence is like one of those slide puzzles where you push little plastic squares around their tray, trying to create order, but only making a bigger mess. Change one thing for the better, something else doesn't work.

And then there are the sentences within each paragraph to be considered. They can slide around too. Maybe the second should be the third. Not to mention the paragraphs that make up the chapters.

The whole manuscript is nothing but slide puzzles within slide puzzles within slide puzzles. And every one as unsolvable as the notorious "14-15" puzzle.

I hate slide puzzles. When I was a kid, hospitalized with a broken leg, someone gave me a puzzle with a map of the world. As if I needed the extra pain.

I never did get the world straightened out.