Day 49 – Back in the Saddle Again

Wow. What a struggle. Demons are swirling around me, sitting on my shoulders, whispering the darkest things — you know what I mean. Everyone knows what is in Room 101.

Well, I’m fighting back. After taking a conscious break, I’m slogging back into the book. Besides feelings of doubt, real or imagined, there are the definitely-real problems of plotting and characterization. Every time I sit down, I think, yes I’m going to get a good dust-up going. But then I start writing and everything just flows out, nice and Tangerine Dream-like. Should I fight it? Force the story down an alleyway it apparently does not want to go? Maybe there is enough interest and “inherent” tension — or at least inherent mystery of what will happen next — that I’m being too hard on the writing.

I don’t think so, but maybe.

Hey, it’s all good, ultimately. The worst that can happen is that I spend a month or five writing in a direction that ultimately leads nowhere. I just re-read that sentence, and realize how depressing that sounds on the surface. But it’s not really because (a) it’s all writing, it’s all practice, and if nothing comes out of it, the experience will lead to somewhere else and (b) I’m having fun with it. Crazy fun. Nobody said this had to be serious.

So there you go (and thanks for listening, btw) — I’ll just write and write and take what comes.

On an aside, I heard the Sony Walkman is officially no more — they stopped making the cassette player. This is confusing to me, because I had no idea they still made them until today. The last time I saw a cassette tape was when I was going through some old boxes. CDs are starting to hide themselves away in dark corners too…

~Graham

(Novel Writing Totals)

Hours Today: 1
Words Today: 1,145
Hours Total: 41.25
Words Total: 56,352