Day Three, continued!

You did it! Another day almost complete. Congratulations.

Tonight, write a list of ALL the things you accomplished with your writing.

Here’s my list:

1. Moved the story around so that it’s in the right order now.

2. Did the necessary research for 1972.

3. Added almost my goal for word count (I’ll finish before the evening is over).

4. Looked up some terrific quotes for the blog.

5. ENJOYED the writing.

We’d love to hear what you did today.

And for your viewing pleasure, here’s a little of what my novel is about. I used a few of McKay’s announcement in a Las Vegas scene.

 

Day Three, continued!

I’m doing it! I am! The book is winding to the climax and then end!

I love this part of writing. When I feel the end is near and I love my characters and the sh!t seems to be mostly gone and I am hurrying to the close of something. I love finishing a novel. And the right-before of finishing a novel.

I’m glad I am doing it with you all.

(I am NOT done. I can just see the finish line. This may still take some time.)

 

Another thing I love? Hemingway’s short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.

I read it as a young teen. Loved it as a young teen. Cried over it.

You can read it here:

http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html

It’s a nice break, reading this story. See what Hemingway does right (or should I say write?). Maybe you don’t love it. That’s okay. We each find the masterpieces we love. We each have our masterpiece lines, novels, moments.

 

I’ll be back in a few hours.

PS There are several typos in this copy of the short story

PMS There are too many exclamation points in this post. But, I am very happy.

Day Three, continued!

Who have I found to quote here? That’s right, Mr. Ernest Hemingway.

In this bit of a letter, Hemingway addresses Fitzgerald about a novel that Fitzgerald has just published. In my opinion, if my friend had written such a harsh letter to me,  I would have killed him in sleep. A little poison in the ear never hurt anyone. Well, hardly.But back to this letter. There are some swears in this, but I think there’s some good advice here, too.

For Christ sake write and don’t worry about what the boys will say nor whether it will be a masterpiece nor what. I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket. You feel you have to publish crap to make money to live and let live. All write but if you write enough and as well as you can there will be the same amount of masterpiece material (as we say at Yale). . . .

Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.

There is a real truth to what Hemingway says here. Don’t worry about what anyone says.

Write for you and that character of yours. Write your truth. Use your pain, your gut, to tell your story–even if it’s not dark and depressing and whatever.

My one-legged rooster story has truth in it. And it may not be a masterpiece, but, at this point there is no shit in it, either. I’ve been working to clean that out as I go.

So there.

PS The typo you see in Hemingway’s letter is one I make all the time.Write/Right

It’s because I have writing on the brain.

Write?

Write.

Day Three

So far so good.

Once, I did NaNoWriMo and I got behind on day one and quit on day two.

Once, I was all ready to do NaNoWriMo and I didn’t at ALL.

Once, I wrote more than half a middle grade novel on NaNoWriMo. Then quit. The book just wasn’t working.

But today, today plan on writing 1500 words.

Why? Because I am going to succeed with our marathon.

What about you?