This past week has been busy and productive, mostly in the continuing series of blog posts based on my journal entries from my first year as a freelancer, 44 years ago.
I started this project in search of some information for my Houdini project, a book about writing a play that I finally completed after four decades. I have the beginning and the end. The journals will help me fill in the middle: what happened to the play in the years in between.
Although this may appear as yet another rabbit hole I’ve fallen down in my quest to finish a project — any project — it has several benefits:
- I’ve identified my procrastination demon and am finding ways to defeat it.
- I’m setting and meeting deadlines, even if the material is written in advance.
- I’ve identified an audience and am writing with them in mind.
- I’m banking this material toward a larger project that will be a relatively quick turn-around.
Meanwhile, some of my readers are contemporaries who know (or are) recurring characters in the story, so I’m giving them shout-outs in my social media. And to help put things into context, I’m introducing some contemporary popular media. Not everything has to be about writing. It can also be about the things that influenced me as a writer.
Coming next week: Another spy-fi influence, a book about a writer (and so much more), and how I listen to a quiet voice inside.
Until then, be seeing you!
In case you missed it …
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Puff and fluff, 1979
Reading Time: 2 minutes Any local news editor understands the delicate balance between what readers and advertisers expect and what you think is important.
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In Other Words … Season 2, Episode 19
Reading Time: 2 minutes Many people don’t even have the time or focus for an entire book. The culture of short videos and podcasts has taken over, to our detriment.
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Top-of-the-head inventory, 1979
Reading Time: 2 minutes “Items in Stock” was, in truth, a misnomer. Some were complete, or ready for a final draft or a rewrite. Others were ideas or characters in search of a plot.
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Award-winning coverage? (1979)
Reading Time: 3 minutes Newspapers have associations, which sponsor competitions. But it’s a long trip from “thinking of sending it” to actually receiving an award.