Started on my novel.

I pretty much have the story laid out, and I've more or less fleshed out the characters. aorn I have over 50 chapters outlined.

The actual writing is going to be challenging. I'm not really a writer, obviously, and making the words say what I'm thinking is quite hard.

The other roadblock is finding times when I'm not being interrupted. Not so easy.

We watched a documentary on Kurt Vonnegut and it talked about how he would close the door in his writing room for hours so his family wouldn't distract him. My dad did the same thing when he worked on his art. It's almost impossible (for me at least) to write and have other things going on at the same time. Just can't get into the flow. I imagine a lot of writers and artists struggled with relationships. In my case, I'm going to sacrifice the writing. It'll get done eventually, I guess.

Perfection is the enemy of good.


Just write. Go back and edit it later. Trying to form the perfect paragraph on the first try is a recipe for failure.

I like to write. I get up every morning at 3 and write until at least 6:30 - 9:30. After that I have to get up and go outside and move around.

is this a famous quote or reference?

It's a hint.

I can't do either without several cups of coffee in me.

have you considered meth? worked for kerouac

For me it's a whole pot, but I'm old.

I have to say, getting the details accurate for my novel is hard. It takes place in the 60s and 70s and trying to get it historically accurate has been challenging. I really want to talk to someone that served in vietnam to try to get some details down. Google doesn't always have the answer.

just have every character drink tab, eat fondue, and attend key parties - problem solved

Lol tab. Worst idea ever. My mom bought it by the case. Yuk.

pm me. I may be able to help, or point you to a reference.

Thanks. I'll take you up on that. I'm composing a list of questions as I put more things down on paper.

I'm having no trouble whatsoever coming up with story lines. I feel pretty good about that part. Doing research is slowing me down a little but I sort of write around "facts" and will come back as needed. Actually, there will be a lot of coming back as needed. Mostly to rewrite the things I've hastily written. Which is almost everything up to now.

I have almost 60 single spaced pages written aorn. Just that will end up being double once I go back through it.

I'm really getting into it.

I always imagined authors having note cards with their characters' traits (for reference & consistency), then plot lines tying them together. Kinda like this:



Only without so much conspiracy, of course.

Lol that's what my brain looks like.

I'm a note card guy. Some famous books have been written entirely on note cards--Lolita, for example.

The Bible is the most famous. But also The Koran. Religious texts are notoriously unreliable. See also the ramblings of L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith.

Zeno explains the multiverse is my newest upcoming book. Preorder now for a significant discount!

And I didn’t need any candy ass note cards!

We got the new roof on the (old) house, and hired some painters to pressure wash some mold and touch up a few ugly spots. Lowered the price a bit and put it back on the market. Fingers crossed.

The book is coming along. I can't type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. Not only that, but I'm hurriedly putting things into words, but not good words. Just so I don't forget. Super happy about the progress but still have a llllooooooooooooooooooonnnnngggggggggggggggg way to go.

Coming up with fictional names is a pain. Places, schools, people, etc. I tend to get hung up on little stuff like this. I've written so much with ????? filled in for a name to be named later and catching up is tedious.

chatGPT?

I don't think I'm ready to try this.

Rant of the day:

I wanted to send some money to someone via zelle. It got to the normal screen where you have to enter a code they text you, which I did. Then it took me to a screen I've never seen before, and i use zelle a lot.

It said, enter your pin number for your debit card. I DON'T EVEN HAVE A FRICKIN' DEBIT CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ended up having to talk to someone in helpdeskland that I could barely understand. grrr......................

Do things the old fashioned way old boy; guns, bags of cash, clandestine meetings on the water front; a secret bank account in Switzerland. Don’t fall for the supposed cool sophisticated way.

Heed this.