Friday, January 28, 2011

Anniversary Party

My first blog post was exactly a year ago. So I'd planned a where-are-we-now, what's-happened-in-a-year  post for today. On Wednesday I worked five hours in a favorite cafe. It started with a meeting with a writing friend/crit partner, and then on my own I delved into Our Spirit. I saw another friend walk by and she joined me for a couple of hours. At one point in our conversation, she told me she'd been thinking about me, specifically about the blog – how flattering that someone was thinking about my blog – and more specifically that she was concerned that Going with the Flow was exactly the wrong message.


I talked about how a few years ago I was in a filmmaking group in NYC with the name Making It Happen. During my time with the group I turned a screenplay into a novel and had so much fun with the novel that I did more and more prose writing until most of my time was writing and not filmmaking. I still produce short films for Our Spirit... but my passionest passion is prose. I was no longer interested in making a film career happen. I celebrated the flow that got me to novels.

My friend talked about the power of making a decision. Paraphrasing... of just doing it.

Okay. I get it.

I'm not here by accident. The flow didn't just splash me up on a rock. Goals and decisions have power.

I'm making the decision to move on querying novel #1. I'm picturing exactly what I want - representation for a novel about a romantic tangle of three high school guys.

What about my other projects – editing novel #2, first draft of novel #3, a new website, Our Spirit? I trust the flow.

And you guys? Is there tension between going with the flow and setting goals?

(I Googled "huh?" and found this image from Dangerous With A Pen, the blog of writer Lindsey Brooks. Now I'm a follower.)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Journey with a Little Swiss Cheese

I've hardly blogged since November... Why? In the spirit of Nanowrimo, I dedicated November to a new project. I started and finished the writing part of it. Then it morphed into something that involved a video and a new website. I'd hoped to launch it all in January. It's taking longer... But in this new era of kinda going with the flow, I'm not sweating the delay.

The writing is done, and I've got meetings next week for the video and the website. Yup, the flow... going with the flow... I'll get there... the project will launch... In the meantime I'm enjoying the trip.

That's a photo of Boca Raton, FL where I spent last week. I love those wooden paths through the mangroves and the palm trees beside the beach. A path. A journey. Just like I love the journey of writing. I might think I know where it's going, but the view is never 100% the same.

During the new project, I also completed a first draft of novel #2 and, thanks to the Swiss Cheese method of writing in the small holes of time, then I did a complete edit of that draft.

Later I'll announce more specifics about the new project. In the meantime, thank you for coming back after my long absence.

And three cheers for all the sights and detours of our writing.