Recommendation (Poem)

When our hearts fall out of concordance with convention, we need reminding:

It’s perverse to think an individual thought
We should all share one thought
The system which was written by…
(They changed it from written to handed down, when it suited them)
The words appeared, miraculously
Blank sheets of paper now covered in script
Intimate details on how humans should interact
Things are done a certain way
(They tell you at birth)
You should know on page X
That you should feel THIS about THAT
And if you don’t feel THIS about THAT
Well, how could you not feel THIS about THAT?
Only a monster would not feel THIS about THAT!
So you are a monster as the book judges you
From one monster to another
I’d tell never tell you how to feel
I’d only ask that
You never stopped

On Driving (Poem)

Driving punishes the individual
Driving rewards the conformist
Creative drivers attempt to redefine boundaries
And are frowned upon for not staying in their lane

Impulsive drivers leave a trail of brake lights
In their erratic wakes, a ripple spreads through traffic
Cell phones ring and they must be answered
Right this very moment, because they must!

Drivers slow to pay their respects to fallen comrades
Then speed off when the road opens up again, and forget:
It’s life or death when you hop into a car
Skill is only part of the equation for survival

Yet those that fear flying would just as easily drive inebriated
Is it willful ignorance of statistics?
Or does the wheel in our hands provide the illusion
Of control that we don’t have?

Control that we crave
When we yield the right of way, unnecessarily
When we stop at an unmarked crosswalk
And allow a single pedestrian to disrupt the flow

Deadlines

I read somewhere that it's always a good idea to write under a deadline because it forces you to create and develop the habits that lead to disciplined writing. This sounds great in theory, but if you're a thirty somethingish person living in a two income home and not relying on the written word to pay your bills, is there really such a thing as a deadline? I'm not going to starve if I miss it.

I can't tell my self something to be true in the hopes that I'll believe it. Besides, I have no illusions about my writing paying the bills one day. Getting published is the only thing on the agenda for now and if that means getting a crisp Jackson to stick in my wallet or just seeing my name in print then I'm all for it. Say what you will about Andrew Jackson, he set the precedent for many things to come in the Executive Branch and his whole windmill tilting attempt at destroying the Federal Bank is a classic example of "Unintended Consequences." But I digress...

I've given myself two deadlines, one which ends October 31st and another for November 30th... not including NaNoWriMo which I'm strongly leaning towards. If I'm getting involved in NaNo then technically both of the deadlines are now moved up to the end of October so I can go into November with a clear plate.

It's not as dire as it may sound dear reader, so please step back from the ledge. I have one story complete that needs a big fat edit in the middle and she's ready to submit, and I started another this weekend, reached 1500 words and the climax. I will most likely finish it in the next couple of days and then revise the heck out of it.

Meanwhile my quarter finished novel glowers at me... It's a delicate line because most writers suggest concentrating on the novel until it's done and the common belief is that short stories and novels are different animals altogether. Writing one doesn't make you any better at writing the other. As a reader, I expect different things from both formats.

What do you do when the story's there though? Do you just ignore it and plow on with the other works or take a breather and hammer the short out then get back to the grindstone? I'm trying to do what feels right and if that means spreading myself so thin that I'm transparent than I'm willing to give it a shot.

Maybe by taking on multiple projects of different scope I'll find discipline. Really though, the only thing that matters for me, right now, is finishing the things that I start which I think in the end will make me a better writer.

Multitasking and NaNoWriMo

NPR's Morning Edition is doing an excellent series about multitasking.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95702512

I love stuff like this because it makes me sound less like a know-it-all-douche-nozzle when I'm trying to explain to folks that using a hands free don't mean a darn thing.

Every job I've had in Washington State has come with a significant about of road time so I've come to understand the hazards of multitasking while driving... but I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about writing.

So far, I've written four short stories, taken one novel to the 16K word mark and started another one that has about 15K words logged. The second one occupies most of my time these days. It's hard, because ideas for short stories come and go. Then, there's NaNoWriMo on the horizon.

November is National Novel Writing Month if you hadn't heard. The goal: To produce a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month the winner gets a... seriously, what more do you need? I think a 50,000 word finished novel (1st draft obviously) is not a bad little prize for an aspiring novelist. It's a start anyway.

Well, I'm intrigued and inspired. Ideas are cheap, I think most would agree it's the execution that you pay for. I fell into an idea recently while we were celebrating my Mother-In-Laws birthday a few Sundays back. My wife, Mother and Father-In-Law, Sister-In-Law, and a family friend, were seated around the dining room table in the middle of a heated discussion about something or other (isn't that how these things always go?) and the friend's phone rang. It was in her jacket, which hung on a hook by the door. She excused herself from the table, walked over to the jacket, took the phone out and looked at the number then muted the ringer and came back to the conversation without missing a beat.

And an idea jumped into my head: What if she answered it and... well I'm not going to tell you the rest.

When my wife and I left that night, I'd lined out the bare skeleton of a plot. The next morning I jotted it all down and when I came home from work later that day, I wrote the opening line. I was giddy.

Well, my excitement was tempered by the fact that I'm still muddling through the sludgy bits of novel #2. I really want to finish it, more than anything in life! At the pace I write there's no way that will happen before November.

I'd also like to participate in NaNo and set my keyboard on fire typing fast and furious, never looking back, not even stopping to blink. I feel like it'd be a betrayal to suspend my current work for this one, however the challenge looms before me and it's to big to ignore.

What to do, what to do?

No matter what I choose, I've learned that I can not write with outside distractions even though I'm decent at multitasking. That means no music or NPR while I stare at the monitor and use the thesaurus on glamorous words like "went".

Seventeen days to decide; I suspect that my mind is already made up and I just don't know it yet.

The Way of the World (Poem)

It becomes ritual and when we ask
"Why do we do the things that we say
or mean the things that we do?"
our parents say:
"Ask your grandparents"

And our grandparents say:
"Back in my day we had
A thing called respect"

But respect is as tired as a two way street
littered with cliches
grown, not given out freely
earned from understanding

While familial love is unconditional and unbending
blind and faithful
and often means
loving that which we do not understand
but that which is closer to our heart
loving that in which we see our reflection

For reasons we do not question
because it's always been so
and it's become ritual

so when we ask:
"Why do we do the things that we say
or mean the things that we do?"
our parents and grandparents say:

"We always did the things that we said
and meant the things that we did
Back in my day
Back in our day
Back in those days."

And you learn to understand

It's Important to Remember

That you can disagree with someone on principle, but that doesn't invalidate their belief. I think we owe it to each other to understand why others feel the way they do rather than calling an idea "stupid" or attacking someone's character because they don't share the same views as ours.

It's great, big, wide, old world out there kiddos. Retreating to our own established comfort zone only makes it smaller. You don't have to believe the same thing as someone else, but certainly taking the time to understand their ideas and how they came to their beliefs will get you a lot a farther than denouncing something that you don't take the time to comprehend.

Besides, it's all theory anyway, until the aliens arrive and show us that we've been using the decimal point the wrong way all these years.

Hey, Wanna Finish My Book For Me?

Part I

1. Wake up! Tell myself that this the day! I will write it out! I promise!

2. Shower/Shave etc, listen to NPR. Think about how my story is a lost cause.

3. Fire up computer.

4. Make breakfast/coffee, listen to KOMO.

5. Pat myself on the back cause at least I'm not That Guy from the stupid KOMO news bit

6. Eat, check Myspace, Facebook, the blogs I read, forums, 16 different media outlets, etc.

7. Get distracted by media, forum or other interweb shininess.

8. Read whatever book I'm working on for 4 minutes.

9. Switch back to NPR and get ready to leave.

10. Make a coffee for the road, and GTFO.

Part II

1. Come home from work with every intent of writing it out! This is the day! NO excuses!!!

2. Fire up computer. Annoy the cats until we're bored with each other.

3. Do dishes while listening to NPR.

4. Make a cup of black tea, because all writing begins with good tea.

5. Wait for tea to steep, check Myspace, Facebook, the blogs I read, forums, 16 different media outlets.

6. Look up that thing they were talking about on NPR earlier. Get sucked into a wiki-click through.

7. Add sugar to tea, listen to compelling story on NPR while reading articles about improving writing skills.

8. Greet wife when she comes home. Answer "No" when she asks if I wrote today. Make more tea.

9. Annoy wife until we're bored with each other.

10. Eat dinner, check Myspace, Facebook, the blogs I read, forums, 16 different media outlets. More tea. Realize it's bedtime.

Sigh...