When I wrote the first draft of For Once in My Life, it was a tremendous relief. I was able to get Arlinda's story down in a timeline, capturing all of her insights and anecdotes. The first draft was for me to know I had completed the first pass of her story. Since I didn't know much about writing a full-length manuscript, Arlinda and I did spin our wheels re-editing sections to lifelessness.

But it was in the editing where the story took shape. We were able to see throughlines and themes to the anecdotes. For those segments in Arlinda's life that was more fragmented in memory, I was able to turn into a braided narrative that would add a layer of cohesion.

Both activities were enjoyable for me. When making the first draft, I was capturing segments of her life. Through editing, those segments took on a multi-dimensional quality. I could see commonalities throughout her life, and make those connections with repetitive phrasing. And in the fourteen years that followed her passing, editing was an opportunities to swim in Arlinda's memories again.