On Writing

I’m a big fan of it.  I even dabble in it.  Sometimes, I actually write something that makes sense.  Most times, I just babble on because my creativity ebbs and flows like the tide.  Prosaic, I know, but true.

Take today.  I decided to hop onto the website and add a Sample Chapter.  Is it a good chapter?  I hope so.  Did it take me a year to write it?  Actually, it took two.  But I did it.  Being closer to fifty than forty, I’ve wasted a lot of quality writing time wondering if I could even complete a chapter, let alone a novel.  Somehow, I figured out the trick to it (a carefully-guarded secret that every would-be novelist is happy to share for free…or if they published a How-To guide, for three figs and a palm tree).

Writers write.  Whether our work hits virtual paper, actual paper, voice-activated dictation or maybe your secretary will just take this down.  But writers write.

I can tell you of an endless number of worlds, plot points, characters and scenes that I’ve developed during my forty-five minute commute to work and home five days a week.  I load my iTunes with all the movie and television show scores I enjoy, and as I trek to the salt mines, the music carries me elsewhere.

That’s my Big Secret ™.  Music.  The one ingredient that makes the gumbo, GUMBO.  Often-times, I’m inspired by a particular track, and then my imagination takes care of the rest.

If writing is a journey, then music is my vehicle.  Everyone has their peculiar peccadillos, a method to their madness that gets them to the promised land.  Music is mine.  And all you need is the kernel of a scene, an image that pops in there that you can shape and hone.  Then that kernel turns into a huge bowl of popcorn covered in garlic salt, and deliciousness follows.

I used to be a Tired Guy, but I grew tired of that.  Now I’m a would-be, untried and unpublished author who’s finished one novel, working on Novel #2, and built this website in the off-chance someone might read and enjoy them.

Maybe you will.  Maybe you won’t.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I wrote one, and will continue to listen to more music to inspire my creativity to craft a second, and a third, until I’ve run out of imagination.

And we all know that ain’t ever happening.

Thanks for visiting.