Two-Meat Tuesday
Uno: BBQ
Dos: Write & erase
Side-dish headlines:
BBQ
That was weird. I wandered up the BBQ place to a, oh heck, call ’em a client, and to talk about certain matters and a (good) research project that involves charts and stars and such. I’m pretty sure they were playing with me, but the two waitresses were fighting over me, and I got glared out for not sitting in the right place. The other was unctuous with her service, “Yeah, well, I’m bored.” Then , as we wrapped up our discussion, I meandered to the other side of the restaurant to avail myself of the little boy’s room. I spotted a familiar visage, “Kramer? I was just thinking about you.”
Small world, getting smaller by the day. I didn’t think about it at the time, but after my first appointment departed and I sat with the other client, I plopped a Styrofoam package of worms right up next to the brisket (for the cat). I sure hope that didn’t put her off her feed. The client, obviously, the brisket didn’t bother the cat.
Write & erase, write and & erase (repeat as needed):
It’s all about process. It’s all about passion. It’s all about heart’s desire. I thought my original intent was to write about how to be an astrologer, but I realized that most of that was just the same information, slightly repackaged. The real trick is passion and process.
I covered a good 2K words, meandering around like I usually do, and I was attempting to distill what the essence of a particular type of endeavor requires. I stumbled into this business, not by a direct route, but sort of a backdoor – in other words, I didn’t set out to do this, it has grown as an organic destination, and sometimes, that leaves the path to progress as a murky trail.
The most important component, what became apparent after writing and erasing all those words, was the point to this endeavor, or for that matter, just about any endeavor, the real trick is two-fold. Process and passion. Or passion and process.
Christopher Moore had a rather good and thoughtful bit of information about the process he goes through when he’s writing a book. He’s a Virgo, just sort of figures, right? I know, just from a casual glance, what kind of astrology chart he’s got, and I understand the forces at work in his life. It’s a generational influence that I’m looking at. I share that.
So finding a niche, locating a place, a spot, a little but of turf to call my own, his own, your own, that’s tough. That’s the passion part of the deal.
I spent three years at a university, taking every creative writing class/workshop they offered. I studied with several well-known authors. I participated in countless workshops outside of the university environment. I learned, basically, one useful piece of information. Write every day. That’s the process, pure and simple.
The passion is a little more difficult. Isolate what matters. Or, what interests grab the intellect.
I’ve got a number of different interests, from fishing to opera. What really interests me the most though, is psychology. Not the formal study of how people interact, but the informal study of humanity as whole, and individuals. That’s also called literature. A little history, a little Western Lit, a few good thrillers, maybe even a Chris Moore book about zombies, sex and Christmas holidays?
It’s got two parts, something I have passion about and then the process of putting that passion to the page.
Side-dish headlines:
Motley Crüe to reunite?
IBM PC biz?
Northern Ireland peace prospects?
Ultimate mobile home?
Which leads to e-mail mayhem?
