The Writing Life, 7 September 2024
Feeling optimistic despite the time crunch of the school year.
The school year has well and truly started as the final third of 2024 is now underway. As we get into the final stretch, I’m finding myself becoming cautiously optimistic about writing and a couple of other things.
The Home Front
I’m now about two weeks or so into my stint at my new teaching position. As usual, I don’t get too much into this part of my life (due to privacy issues and my own personal preferences), but I will say it’s been a welcoming and positive environment, and I’m looking forward to continuing to settle in and be part of the learning community.
Pretty soon, my wife and I are hoping to move into a new house here in Fort Madison in the next couple months. Again, not to get into too many details, but my wife Laura is missing being able to have her own porch and some other conveniences we’ll have once again. (Once everything happens, I’ll at least show you what my new writing space looks like.)
My kids continue to keep building their own homes now they’re on their own in the work force. I’m definitely proud of both of them, even though they work in totally different industries and different personalities. I love them both to bits.
What I’m Writing
And what about my writing, then?
The Yank Striker 2, the sequel for The Yank Striker: I’ve made steady and consistent progress on this, maybe more consistent than I have been at any point in its creation. As the home stretch of the story is coming into more focus for me than any of the “side quests,” so to speak, I’m going to get the basics down on my document/electronic paper/etc. Whether I have a finished book ready for publication by the beginning of Summer 2025 is open for debate, but the idea I might have a really rough draft of the book finished by the end of 2024 seems slightly better than even odds for the first time in a while.
The Untitled Pro Wrestling Family Drama project: Not much progress recently on this project, but I am preparing to get into a new scene here whenever I get a moment. In case you are curious, this would involve the main character returning home and, in the words of those who believe in the Hero’s Journey, it becomes the time when he answers the call, so to speak. That’s one part of the story I’m looking forward to telling.
The Untitled Liegois Poetry Chapbook: This is coming along quicker than I expected. I think I have pretty much all of the poems I want to include in the collection, but I still would like to try and do some revisions on the ones I selected. When I first started experimenting with poetry, I think I wound up being too wordy, too much like prose, and I have too much of a tendency to add additional cluttering words to my prose, anyway. Imagine how it would work in a poetry situation! Most of the revisions have involved cutting words, and I feel quite confident I’ve not trimmed away any needed words in the process.
In poetry, what I’ve learned from those who write it is every single word counts. Every word needs to hold it’s own weight, and what I really enjoy about the whole poetry process is how much more I have to learn, how much more I have to grow in this journey.
Not to get too bogged down into writing statistics, but I’m about 9,000 words ahead of my pace to get at least 200,000 words written this year. However, considering I knocked out about 215,000 words last year, I’m hoping to pick up the pace even though I won’t have as much free time as I did from May to the middle of August. I’m hoping I use my time more efficiently.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
Last weekend I posted a big promo post (it was the Labor Day weekend and I didn’t have much else scheduled) about some of the events I had coming up, information about my current books, and where to find them.
One of the events I wrote about (the one in Burlington) already occurred this week, and I really enjoyed the experience. Burlington By The Book is one of the great independent bookstores in Iowa, and I’d absolutely recommend you head down there at 301 Jefferson Street in Burlington and pick out a book. And guess what, you can now find both my books there as well.
The other announcements and posts are up to date. If you’re interested, you can read the post here.
Blatant Promotional Post so Feel Free to Ignore if That's Not Your Thing
For those unfamiliar with my blog, I post my regular newsletter on the first and third Saturday of the month, a night of fiction or nonfiction writing/essays/writing advice on the second Saturday (Prose Night at the Writing Life), and original poetry on the fourth Saturday (Poetry Night at the Writing Life).
A Suggestion to the Substack Overlords
Sadly, the ability to mention Substack directly has been disabled on the site, but perhaps this message might reach to their ears if enough of us say something about it.
There are so many great writers out there I am subscribed to and I wish I was able to be a paid subscriber to more of them, but is as the case with many of you, I am sure, you only have a limited about of finances to do this.
As another option other than regular subscriptions, I think it would be a great option if users were able to pay fees to read individual articles rather than full subscriptions. I would have to think these fees would be nominal even compared to the lower-level subscription fees. I would certainly be willing to pay for separate articles even if it didn’t pay for me to get a full subscription.
Anyway, just think about it, Substack.
Writing Quote(s) for the Week
I’ve got two quotes for the week this week. This first one seems to fit my efforts to revise some of my past poetry (lol).
Poems are never finished - just abandoned.
Paul Valery
I like the optimism of this thought from an author of my generation who’s had better literary luck than I have, but I’m glad for his success nonetheless1.
With writing, we have second chances.
Jonathan Safran Foer
Final Thoughts
That’s all the words there is to write about me and writing for now. I might be tempted to share some rough draft scenes from one of my works in progress here on Prose Night, but I’ve also been reading an interesting nonfiction book that might be worth a review. We’ll see what gets finished first.
Writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.
-30-
Then again, when Joyce Carol Oates is your freshman creative writing teacher and she gets wowed by your prowess, you’ve got some luck on your side as well as the talent and willingness to develop it.