So the “80s Song Story” turned out to be 3,000 words, rather than 2,500. Who can estimate, eh? This is relevant to a conversation Brigid (my daughter) and I had yesterday. She’s working on a short story as a partial break from her book, and I asked her to guess how long it would be–realizing […]
Read More ...Ron Does Crits
Tonight I can announce that I will be offering to critique manuscripts at the Spring Writer’s Conference (in Greensburg, Indiana — April 27th). The sessions will be 1-on-1 discussions that are planned to last up to 30 minutes. Some Ground-rules/Details: 1) Manuscripts are due to the coordinator by April 1 2) Length Requirement: No More […]
Read More ...80s Ron Meets Future Ron
Made it to about 2300 words on my new story. One more, short scene and I’ll be done with the first draft. I don’t think it’ll need too much clean-up to be ready to go, but I’m saying that without having read through it. Note to self: I’ve been wrong before. I’m guessing this will […]
Read More ...Pedometer Goes “Boing”
So, I broke my “GoZone” (pedometer) a couple days ago. Yes, it was traumatic. It was a bit over two years old. No, it wasn’t’ the electronic read-out, that broke. It wasn’t the body cracking or splitting or whatever. In fact, the actual step counter worked just fine. It was the strap. Or, to be […]
Read More ...Writing in Reverse
Yesterday, as I was driving into work, a classic song from the 80s came on the radio. It was one of those multitude of songs that kind of all fade into one big mass of songs (perhaps you know the type–one of those that immediately make me think of Hugh Grant and his thrown hip […]
Read More ...Radio in Paradise?
We listen to a lot of Radio Paradise. This is an independently programmed, listener-funded internet station. It’s a beautiful piece of the internet as far as I’m concerned. We listen to it pretty much all weekend long–leaving our week-day mornings to local commercial radio to ensure we get any morning news about road conditions or […]
Read More ...Hitting the “Send” Button
There’s a time in every story when I think it’s just about the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen. Literally perfect. This is always immediately after I’ve written “The End” for the last time and I’m still awash in the sense of power that has brought me to that piece. Makes sense, eh? Unfortunately, there […]
Read More ...One Draft, FInished
It’s always nice when the Cards win. # Finished the “shitty first draft” of a story this morning. It’s got a few holes in it, but I powered through them to get to the end because I wanted to drive to the end of the story as I was feeling it. I’ll spend the next […]
Read More ...Optimistic Again
I’ve been working on a new short story, of course, and really struggling with the scope of the effort. I need it to fit into a short piece, but every idea I latch onto is … well … bigger. When I sit down to write on it, I feel like one of those guys in […]
Read More ...Step Update
Ok, so I’m sitting on the couch and watching Lisa walk and work. I would be, I suppose, walking and working, too … but I’m tired. I’m up over 30K steps already, and I’m just kinda feeling lazy. I don’t suppose being up until 1:00 last night watching the Cards lose in 5 overtimes had […]
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