Category: writing

  • Writerly resolutions: May Status (a little late)

    Writerly resolutions: May Status (a little late)

    I got a bunch more work done on the novel this month, getting two new chapters completed and most of a third chapter written this month. On the short story front, I finished a draft of a new story which got workshopped just before month’s end, did revisions on three short shorts and put them…

  • A visit with my younger self: 30 June 1988

    A visit with my younger self: 30 June 1988

    Once I lost my daily habit, it turned into a less than weekly habit as I didn’t write another entry for almost two weeks. This time, I wrote down a collection of story ideas (story ideas are cheap—my punk-ass self was crapping these out like a gringo tourist in rural Mexico). Story ideas:“Rite of Passage”…

  • A visit with my younger self: 18 June 1988

    A visit with my younger self: 18 June 1988

    Well, I missed a day for the first time back in 1988 and I return with an entry that is embarrassing in more ways than one: Why do people read or watch movies or TV or whatever? More than ever, I’m convinced that it’s because we’re all looking for answers but we aren’t even sure…

  • A visit with my younger self: 16 June 1988

    A visit with my younger self: 16 June 1988

    Wow, I was being quite dilligent about keeping up this diary back in the olden days. Thoughts about “A little dignity”—How did Phillotson become the man he is? What trigger the bressedown, I think something here is a façade, but what? Is, the dignified Phillotson rool on is the comical)? Why not lead the reader…

  • A visit with my younger self: 15 June 1988

    A visit with my younger self: 15 June 1988

    A bit of context on these journal entries, I suppose. This was the summer between my sophomore and junior year of college. I had a job working at the University of Illinois at Chicago computer center. I forget what I was doing that year, although if I remember correctly, I was  working in the Medical…

  • A visit with my younger self: 14 June 1988

    A visit with my younger self: 14 June 1988

    I encountered recently a writer who was publishing his old journal entries on Substack, and it occurred to me that there was probably nothing that private about my old journal entries that I couldn’t do the same, so here it is. “Rescuer”—A boy who wants to grow up to be a hero.. When the opportunity arrives…

  • Writerly resolutions: April status

    Writerly resolutions: April status

    Finally beginning to get back into a groove on the writing. After much delay, I finished my post-workshop revisions on chapter three and then managed to get a first draft and rewrite of a new chapter (which will become chapter two coming before the existing chapter two). I also think I solved a characterization problem…

  • Writerly resolutions: March status

    Writerly resolutions: March status

    This was a terribly unproductive month for my writing. It turns out it still hurts to do things like operate a pencil or scissors. The latter is mostly helpful for things like opening packages, but the former is something I like to do for revising. I did manage to finally finish revisions on chapter two…

  • Writerly resolutions: February status

    Writerly resolutions: February status

    So February started strong, which was nice but life can be a real jerk and between a bit of a slowdown mid-month combined with a minor disaster, I kind of stalled out. Minor disaster you say? These used to match: Why yes, I tripped and fell, landing hard on my hands, and, as it turned…