tendertouch: Blog

some words are flowing again. It's not the steady stream that made writing Building a Better Past so easy but I like where it's going so far and I feel I have a vision for the sequel. Along with what I wrote several years back the story is up to roughly 28,000 words and I've got the characters and ideas that I feel will drive the remainder of the story. The lack of a vision for the story was what stymied me before so unless I suddenly realize that my ideas won't work I feel good about being able to continue.

Let's hope I didn't jinx it by speaking up.

I wonder how often writers her on SOL go back and read their own stories? I hadn't done so with 'Building a Better Past' in several years but last week I found the start that I had made to a sequel and after glancing at it decided it might be worth pursuing. Doing that would require rereading the original story, though, to get the flow.

The most surprising thing for me is that I'm mostly pretty happy with it. I can see where I spent too much time in tell instead of show mode and the pacing is uneven but I'm purely an amateur and I still like the story. I love the idea of a character getting a do-over who isn't focused on money, or even that knowledgeable about how to build some up, but is instead mostly interested on living a good, happy life.

I still don't know if the other story will ever come to fruition but I'm feeling better about it right now than I have in a while.

I just realized it's been more than four years since I last posted a blog entry. It's probably time to tell people that I'm not dead yet.

On the good side, I'm reasonably healthy. I even have had an idea or two for stories (though not for a sequel to Building a Better Past.)

On the not-so-good side, time to write is hard to come by and when I have it nothing flows from the mind to the fingers. I tried to put together an outline (I think Building a Better Past would have been better for having one) but even that escapes me. I'm in awe of the people who can turn out something worth reading on a regular basis.

It was pointed out to me elsewhere that Celtic Cowboy's profile has been changed to show that he died September 10th. Damn!

I've been getting a few messages asking what's happening since I thought it was going so well a year ago. Two things conspired to sidetrack it.

First, time: it went away. I started a new job shortly after my last update and I've been very involved with it, which has combined with some home life issues to seriously limit the time I can spend on my writing. It's worse than that, though, as I've never been able to keep the flow of my writing unless I'm doing it in sizable chunks.

Second, inspiration: I'm not sure I like where I had the story going. It was starting to feel too pat and condensed but I haven't come up with a way to draw it out effectively. OTOH it may just be my memory of it so I'm going to go back and reread what I have written and see if I like it any better now.