Writer Distractions.

Dad.

Wedding.

Daughters.

Fantasy football.

Alcohol.

Unemployment.

New adventures.

The Commute.

Clutter on my desk.

Sunday mornings.

Time to return to the pencil.

The Monster That Haunts Me

   The major project has been sitting for the last few months, waiting. Lamenting. It needed an ending, a conflict, an unexpected cliffhanger. A sudden revelation to neatly tie off the principle of the book.

  Two weeks ago I found that ending, that startling revelation. It began when I read studied, author Thomas Larson's book The Memoir and the Memoirist.  Ironically, among his credits, Larson is also a Staff Writer for the San Diego Reader, the same magazine that I write for.

  Larson showed me how the neat bow, the conclusion to wrap up the story was missing. That one element which would make the memoir memorable, was absent. I had known it now for almost a year, and still could not come up with any appropriate ending. I was given a possible conclusion by one of my daughters when she announced her intention to wed, but I did not have an "ending". As much as I had written, without the ending, it would be, as Larson wrote, a memoir which was inauthentic.

  And from another daughter, the ending arrived about two weeks ago.

  The rewrite is on. The ending has compelled me to go back into the draft, and begin working more of the elements of the ending, into the backstory. And with the ending, comes the opportunity to finish out this "monster" which has haunted me.

Subsim Review: Navy Field 2

  Many thanks to the staff at the web's #1 submarine simulation site, Subsim, for carrying my review of the Navyfield 2 game.

It's All Right Chickybabe.

"Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties." - John Irving.

"I've found, in my own writing, that a little hatred, keenly directed, is a useful thing." - Alice Walker.

"It's all right Chickybabe, I understand." - A father.

Writing Through The Muddle - Part 2.

Writing through the muddle - part 2

Not all associates may be who they have always appeared to be.

Not all opportunities arrive as scheduled.

Not all writing assignments demand the same urgency.

Not all conversations result in the same contract.

Not all contracts need to be accepted. 

Sweet Home, Chicago.

Sweet home, Chicago.

Four days in the Windy City.

I could have done with five.

Writing Through The Muddle

All writers have a project that just...nags away at them demanding to be finished, when it cannot be.

I happen to have two.

The first, is the proposed book on the blending of divorced families. A title has been picked out, but like all good stories, it needs a beginning, a "muddle" and an end. The end should bring about a resolution to the muddle. Mine does not, so the muddle continues.

The second project is spin off from the original idea. Much like the Star Wars prequels, the second project is the "before" story. Hopefully my "before" story won't be as loathed as the Star Wars prequels. It too has a beginning and a "muddle", and unlike the first project - has a known end point - but it's not there yet.

It faces the same problem as Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, everyone knows where it ends, but the path traveled is vexing.

I have little to worry about though. On this day, August 1 1975, George Lucas competed the third draft of what would became A New Hope.  He called it "The Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller".

 The Force was not strong with George on that title. I guess he also muddled his way through.