I am feeling decently on the path, folks. But this morning walking out the door I contemplated writing the line ‘Sometimes in times close to the end, things that might save us might look hardly distinguishable from continuing our self-destruction.”
My novel blew up, while I was talking to my writers group about developments. As someone who works with words, and having a group to talk things out with, it felt like being in car, telling people that week ‘so what’s new with your work’… and as I explained… the engine sputtering, dropping out. Either my character- their original motivations, had lost their fuel on the trip through the plotting I had done… or I had hit something that broke something inside, and now…
It’s in the shop, they are saying it’s mostly for parts at this point. They don’t use the phrase ‘totaled’ at the novel shop I’ve been using, because so much of it, the parts I put into it in the custom build, they are classic I tells ya. And the characters – none of them were killed, either, thankfully. It’s just, off the circuit for a while while I think. While the gas refills itself and the words settling in the rear view have time to lumber from the sand and pit they’re in and becoming lumbering dinosaurs in some landscape again, alive and able to stroll back into the park. But – shortly after that debacle, I started on a new short story, again with the inspirational help from the writers group.
I’m working on that short piece, looking to be around 6/7000 words total, that I am working hard to get sent out for a deadline on April 1st. It too is cyberpunk and has a theme that relates to some things going on in the news. I don’t want to give away too much about it, because I think the advice I got that talking about your work in progress can sometimes be detrimental to the work, so… But it’s going really well! I feel really connected to it! The weather change is doing me good and I am walking and taking the bus up to a Panera bread Co and hanging out most days for a long time just whiling away working. The same place the writers group is meeting now, back in person.
Again, that line I thought about writing applies. On the precipice, but in sight of daylight. No choice but to keep climbing up that hill. Pushing the boulder, and trying to imagine oneself happy.
Cause you f-‘in know Vonnegut got it right, when he said –
The Haunted Typewriter 