Inspiration
What a year! I refer to 2023 as a great learning experience… not only completing the novel and working through the publishing process but shifting my work from the Equipment Leasing world to writing. I’m planning to hit the ground running in 2024.
I’ve found that writers tend to have specific writing routines. A couple below:
Ernest Hemingway…“When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there…”
Kurt Vonnegut… “I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon, I do schoolwork, either teach or prepare. When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten. I do pushups and sit ups all the time and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not.”
I’m still looking for a place that I can go to and find inspiration. This autumn, I took a class on short story writing at a local college, not knowing what it would look like. Would 25 students, much younger than me, go through the motions? Would the teacher be engaged? The students focused on writing, and the teacher was very constructive (266 slides! Each student wrote two stories: one Flash Fiction (focus on minimal words) and another a Short Story. Then, all stories were critiqued! I’ll share mine in the following two Newsletters. (If you’re not signed up yet, make sure you fill out your e-mail at the bottom of this page under “Stay Updated.”
Happy Holidays to you and your family!