Well, as I patiently wait for word from the publisher about my novel, I have started writing a short story. Basically what you have is one guy who seems to have everything, and then this other guy, the narrator, who seems to have nothing. Introductions aside, they have a brief conversation about the day's news and politics and sports. As they part ways, the narrator has a sudden epiphany, and realizes that no everything in life is as black and white as he thought. No I am not giving the ending away So, what do you think?
OK, so I went back to lurking around for a while. Anyway, after the last blog post I went on an extended writing explosion and, can you believe it, FINISHED! So the story is done, just over 50,000 words, and it is off to the publisher. I was going to do the whole self-publishing thing, but then I changed my mind, believing that the novel is good enough for an actual publisher. Anyway, wish me luck!
I have been writing this story in chunks. I read somewhere that Hemmingway would try to write one good page per day. I have not been keeping up a pace anywhere near that. There have been days where I was inspired to churn out 7 or 8 pages, and then weeks of nothing. I do not blame this on writer's block, but rather on an unpredictable variability in motivation. Even when I am not writing, I am thinking about the story. I have a long commute home, so I think a lot during that ride. So what other problems have I had? Plot issues, as I imagine every author goes though - is there really anything to this story? Who really cares about what I have to say? For better or worse, I also have no real outline of the story; I have a general idea where I am going, but that is about the extent of it. I have gotten better about this lately. I must confess however that I have not yet decided how the story is going to end. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has read these posts. Please feel free to say hi.
Like many other people posting here, I feel that there is a story inside of me desperately trying to get out. Since I was a very young boy, I have wanted to write. I remember using a VERY primative computer (I was maybe 10) and writing a 4 page start to a science fiction novel. That's as far as I got, and over the last 20+ years, I have made many more attempts and have had zero complete stories. Why? I guess that losing interest in the topic played a role, but also I ran out of things to say. I would exhaust my ideas after 10 or 20 pages. I never had a plan. I also never had experience with anything. I think most people will agree that you can't write about things you don't know. Maybe some people can get away with it, but I can't. Trust me, I have tried. So, what am I doing now? Well, there are 2 things I have a lot of experience with. One - failing at writing stories and two - my job. So the story I am writing now (have no idea of a title yet) is about someone who is trying to write a story while navigating through his career. Lets just go ahead and call it semi-autobiographical. It is going well so far, but in the next blog entry I will tell you about the starts and stops I have had with it.
Its hard to believe, but I have never "blogged" anything before. In spite of being a 'young' man who is supposed to be tech-savvy, I am decidedly not. I am old fashioned. For that same reason, it was not until today that I entertained the idea of publishing my book as an e-book. I suppose that in 2010 it makes a whole lot of sense to do it this way, but I hope that the joy of holding a crisp new book in one's hands never dies. I am sure I am not alone is that either. I supposed I will have to publish it both ways. I have no idea if anyone will ever read this blog, but here it is anyway. Please feel free to leave a message for me. Next time, I will try to share a little bit about why I enjoy writing and what I am working on.