The Last Few Days…

I’m just going to say the last few days, but the absences I have been accruing can all be summed up in… man, life just goes by if you blink.

But that’s not the point of what I wanted to touch on today. No, I’ll do that in future posts (those will happen, honest, I swear, okay… I’m going to do my best).

No, today… today was the second day in a row that I woke up with a thought niggling away inside my skull. Like one of those songs that gets stuck, that you are forced to sing in your head over and over and over again… until you are so tired of it that you just have to hear it one more time (ELO is infamous for this with me).

Yesterday, the thought was just two words. Two words that became three words, that became the title for a short story I’m feeling the need to explore. The funny thing is, when I woke up, the words I had echoing in the cavernous hallow that is my brain turned out to actually be the wrong combination of words.

So, when I was looking up the definition of the words, I found it hysterical that there actually was a definition to them. And it turns out, I may not have been wrong. And the idea I had for the initial story didn’t make sense with the words I had… kind of like I’m sure this isn’t making any sense either…

And then the title became complete when I add the letter “A” to the title. Now, I’ve got to work on that story.

And today, today I was roused from my sleep by this idea of star crossed lovers. So trope, I know, but it was this comical scene in a bar that was playing over in my head. I let it ride for a bit, let it fester in my gray matter, until I finally had to roll out of bed and start putting the idea down on paper (wait, does it count because I actually was typing in Word? Anyway…).

In the process of writing down this idea, it started to morph a little, and it felt familiar to a story I had heard before. Okay, less story, more myth. And so I looked up this myth, and started trying to adapt this story to the myth, seeing how I could pull some of the ideas out of it and run with that.

So far, I’ve got a smattering of ideas, and I was trying really hard to squeeze the story into… well, rather expand the story… the myth, making it fit, fill all those spaces that had already been filled before.

And I had an epiphany of sorts as the whole thing started to fall apart…

Stay true to the story.

So, I stopped trying to expand it away from what was originally organic in my thoughts. And I think that’s one of the biggest issues I have.

I tend to overthink the story. It’s like overworking the batter for a cake. It just tends to ruin what should be a wonderful thing.

But, yeah…

There ya go. A point. I guess.

Don’t overthink your process, just do it.

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Humility…

Humility.

Not something I am particularly well acquainted with. Granted, I’m not a very proud (boastful) person either. However, when it comes to my writing skills, I have had occurrence over the last few years to recognize that I am not as horrible as I think that I am. There are times in my writing groups or in my classes where I will read peoples work and my immediate thought or critique is, “Seriously, give up. No, really. I hear accounting is a good career.”

And then I hear my wife’s voice nagging me, “Be nice.”

Now, let me just set one thing straight. Being nice is just not in my character. I’m brash, I’m curt, I’m honest. I’m kind of like the 2×4 that most people need to be hit with (or at least I’ve been told that (ok, I might be a bit proud of that aspect… just a bit)). So, when my wife tells me to be nice, I have to take a deep breath and remember that I am dealing with humans who have feelings… so much ugh.

And then…

Then it happens. That moment when I read Langston Hughes or Robert Frost of Dylan Thomas and I am reminded in a brutal fashion that I am not that great.

Oh, how the mighty do fall.

Where just a few seconds ago I stood high on a pedestal and sneered at the masses of the inadequate and doggerel, I now look up from the crater that has become my bed and I reach up, stretching forth my hand toward the gods of the written word and wonder when… when will be my moment to shine like the stars that they have become, twinkling in the heavens and haunting my thoughts like ghosts from a time I long to bring back.

How I long to walk amongst those stars and hear their stories. How I wish to sit for a while under the tutelage of those men and women who weave the words wistfully and without work.

Just to create something, anything, that will touch another soul the way that they have touched mine.

***

p.s. A is for alliteration

On Editing…

My final portfolio is due on Tuesday. On that day (or prior to it if I finish) I will be submitting my poem and my prose for a whopping 30% of my grade. That has the potential to take my 96% down to a failing grade…

Not that I’m worried about that. No, I’m fairly certain I’m going to pass this class only because I would pretty much have to submit a blank page in order to fail.

But that’s a lot of stress to add to the mind of any writer (I think we all suffer from the “not-good-enough” syndrome). 

Two Years…

 

According to my Facebook flashback, today marks the two year anniversary since I first published Count Your Blessings.

Two years. That’s it.

That’s how long it has been since I started taking this writing thing seriously again. It feels like it has been so much longer ago than that. Ok, sure, there is a leap year day snuck in there that might be the reason for why it feels so much longer than just an ordinary (non-leap year day) two years… but I doubt it.

Time is weird like that I guess. For instance, it’s not until someone says something like…

Did you know Top Gun came out 30 years ago?

Source: IMDB

That I suddenly realize how much time has gone by. And yes, go check, this year marks the 30 year anniversary of the release of that epic Anthony Edwards movie. Only, they had to go and make it about Tom Cruise and kelly McGillis. We all know the real love story was Goose and Meg Ryan. Right?

But, anyway… digressing being what it is… It feels like that movie came out just a few years ago, not 30. Man, just typing that is making me feel really old… And yet, there it is. The cold, hard truth that all that time has passed since then.

And in the two years since I have started back to writing, I have gone back to college, finished my AA, started my Bachelor’s degree, switched over to WordPress (I started on Blogger), started a second blog (A Flash Of Fiction), joined up with the guys over at Epic Fantasy Writers, entered into a few writing contests (and won a couple.. yah me!), joined a writing workshop group, penned several hundred stories, poems and haiku (including my currently ongoing March Haiku A Day), and am currently trying to figure out how to outline a novel so I can actually (and finally) finish a book (wouldn’t that be nice?).

After typing all that, it’s no wonder two years seems much longer than it has been. That’s a lot of stuff. Oh, and I forgot to add, I turned 45 last month. So there’s that too.

 

Yep, I’m that many old…

I’d just like to thank those of you who I have connected with on here, who have become my online friends. Even those of you who just lurk in the shadow like you are Buffalo Bill, just waiting to see if you can wear me as a skin suit (too far?). This has been one heck of a ride.

So, here’s to two years of being back in this writing game. And to many more.

 

Hoo Yah!

Copyright…What’s that?

Like any good writer, I follow a few blogs that are about publishing, writing, and other things revolving around the world in which I call my playground. And, probably unlike good writers, I tend to not read them because I am so busy with so much stuff that has nothing to do with writing (I probably should put down the video games once in a while).