Writing New Stuff

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I took up following Charles Buckowski on Twitter.

He was the author who wrote a whole bunch of books while absolutely hammered. His biggest claim to fame was the book and movie, Barfly.

I read a lot of his stuff through the years and I'm happy to see his thoughts, from beyond the grave, now, on Twitter.

He speaks a lot about the writing process and how impossible it is not to write.

I get that, boy!

I've been working on a few things...I always am, truthfully.

I keep the ideas at the front of my mind as I go through the day and if I'm clearheaded some of the plot will come to me as I drive, or climb a ladder, or listen to my beautiful wife tell me about her day.

It's always sitting right there.

Yet...there are moments when it becomes discouraging as well.

When the plot gets stuck in the mud and you aren't sure where to go.

That was happening with me so I went outside the haunted house that is my head and sent the story thus far to a couple of faithful readers.

One of them said something that made me think...and I didn't feel great about it...but knew there was thinking to do.

Then I went to sleep for the night.

As I have a tendency to do, I woke up in the middle of the night.

And the next 50 pages of the idea were sitting right there.

The 'What If' had become reality.

I struggled out of bed and grabbed the black notebook so I could just jot down a couple of notes. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I knew that if I didn't write down a couple of key words I could wake up in the morning...

...and it would all be gone.

Funny how the mind works.

(There's an aside here...sometimes the thoughts you have just upon waking sound real good as you're on the pillow, but then you wake up and consider it and you think, 'Damn, that's dumb!').

Not this time.

The plot move was perfect.

The new material is just sitting there.

Now I just gotta' type it.

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