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put a scratch through it Murphy’s Law is alive and well. When you most need a couple of days off, and they finally arrive — with the promise of a weekend of productivity, of work on the novel — that’s when the long-overdue allergy attacks arrive in force. My eyes and nose and face have been a train wreck all weekend. Misery, that’s the name I’d give this weekend if I had to give one. The weekend of misery. Sounds dramatic, I know. Tough. On the book front: Last Thursday Felicia and I called off our usual dancing date. Earlier in the day, she’d picked me up from work with lunch in hand, and we went to the park to relax and eat. It was the first time in awhile I’d gotten away from the office to enjoy lunch, and it showed. My brain took advantage of the escape to go freewheeling through the story I’ve been working on for these last six years, and halfway through our sandwiches I hit on a fantastic idea, one that rewrites everything I thought Eleanor was going to be, and one that gives me a fresh sense of purpose and direction. So I rambled about the book for the rest of the hour while Felicia listened and knitted. For the rest of the day at work I felt the itch to write, to work on the book, so I called off our date and Felicia went out with some of her friends, and I stayed home ripping Eleanor apart and stitching her back together again. The end result was a well-organized story map, and for the first time I know what this book I’m writing is really about, and I am ridiculously eager to write it. It’s all I want to do, which is a pretty great feeling. Here’s where my four hours of work on Thursday left me:
I spent Friday looking forward to the weekend so I could work on the book. On Saturday I managed about four or five hundred words of the new draft before the allergies really settled in. It’s impossible to write when your face is leaking and you can’t stop sneezing. (This post is even pretty much a bitch to write. Focusing = not so easy.) Sunday didn’t change the situation a bit, unfortunately. I have, however, found the book’s soundtrack. In the past I’ve written my books while listening pretty much exclusively to certain albums — Nightblindness even takes it title from David Gray’s White Ladder recording. Eleanor’s shaping up to be a Springsteen kind of novel. I’m happy about that. Time to tear open a fresh box of Kleenex. This weekend sucks.
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the blog and design portfolio of Jason Gurley. (Learn more.) This site has been around since 1998; me, since 1978. Three years ago I drove 3,000 miles to see a movie. This is the year of meetings. Which means I'm taking an awful lot of meeting notes.   lust, cautionjolly up that linedouble indemnitya suddennesswhat you hold dearheart of the valleyseries mvp, ayuplong live the church of baseballeleanor apocalypsopaul newman has diedView complete archive
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 01. dreaming of falling02. marvelous descent03. a conversation04. the colors05. huffnagle island06. a hundred million07. sixty-six stories08. anyone earthbound09. a girl named eleanor10. a route obscure and lonely11. a certain stillness12. this is jack13. wide flat lands14. going home15. girl unscrewed16. slow rehabilitation17. twenty-three stories18. a far-off point19. fifteen years quiet20. a one-beer fella21. luminescence22. one-sided conversation23. hearts big and stupid24. nineteen seventy-eight25. first light26. a hundred years27. too long to stop now28. plainswept29. a widower in training30. spies and assets31. thirty years and then some32. leaping over couches33. cricket song34. eleanor's first kiss35. like so much ballast36. too much37. the longest wait38. the second ice storm39. rocket summer40. waiting41. wax wings42. breakup43. tough beans
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August 24th, 2008 at 8:27 am
[…] Original post by Jg […]
August 24th, 2008 at 8:55 am
[…] Original post by Jg […]
August 24th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
it’s…beautiful! i am so glad you’ve finally found your flow. congrats!