And with that, he's back

The novel is moving speedily along, I'm now in the middle of the third chapter and spent most of the day editing the prologue and first chapter so that I can send it out to a few people to look over. The second chapter went through a polishing...and I have had to change a lot of things retroactively as I discover more about the characters. How was I to know that Heather would be the oldest character and try to assume a den mother role? I will prolly spend a lot of time editing over the next few weeks, as I have to be at work, but there's not a lot of "work stuff" I can do there.

Lots of sitting and observing and waiting. Good editing time.

Blogging is something that I wish I did better. Some people are amazing at it like Mark Evanier and Neil Gaiman, but really, you just kind of expect that, since they are both gifted and talented writers.

I never kept a journal of my life...even in a class where we were to keep a journal, I would write jokes about news events, essays about why only God can make a tree (because he hides the instrctions from us) or reviews of comics. It was next to impossible to write about my life without sounding like the old "Cheech and Chong" routine "Sister Mary Elephant".

"Today I woke up. I took a shower while listening to the news. I drove to work. I talked to people, wrote a list of things I had to do, did everything on the list and went home. Then at home I shoved something in my piehole and wrote or watched a movie. Then I went to bed."

I tend not to "journal" my ideas and such because they work themselves into my writing. As I edit the early Janus Trelane stuff, it is amazing just how much of it is just stuff that is bubbling up from my inner mind...reacting to my life at the time. The novel I am doing now is actually a bit of a meditation on my life from about 5 or so years ago in a way. Delaing with the workplace, creativity in it and such...but as with all of my writing, it's all about putting a bunch of interesting people together and having them react to each other.

I did read a bunch of celebrity blogs I read about on The Onion A.V. Club, it struck me that as much as we all like to think that blogging is the Next Big Thing, it's the same as it ever was. Talking to people in a way that tries to tell them that if they Just Knew You, they'd like you.

Maybe that's why I have trouble blogging. I don't much care about being liked while I'm here. I'd much rather you read something I wrote and like IT. Me? I'm the quiet one who is sitting the corner, watching you and thinking how I can put you into a novel.