Thursday Thoughts

I guess the existential question that periodically plagues me, "Am I a writer?", has been answered for me once and for all. That is because I am on an engaging writing project that seems to haunt my hours, even when not sitting down at the computer. It keeps chaining me to the desk. And this in the heat of a Texas August, which hardly lends itself to power expended on even the most basic tasks. Now the only questions that plague me are "Am I a good, or even an adequate, writer?" and "Can I stick to and finish this project?"

I forbear to speak much about it, because experience teaches me that, if I do, I run the risk of 'talking it out' too much rather than 'working it out.' I'm only sharing it with my brother John at the moment, who inspired the idea and the form it would take. You can probably figure out something about it from yesterday's post, but that's as far as I'm going.

The preliminary concept has prompted an unexpected burst of creativity. Notes lead to outlines lead to actual writing, which lead to John and me pinging ideas back and forth, reviving and adapting old concepts from other projects, thinking up homages to our childhood enthusiasms, and even, to a certain extent, merchandizing (just to keep the project on a boil). We have a pretty good idea of our main characters, and we know where the pilot 'episode' is going; now we just need a string of ideas to carry the concept along. A large part of this effort is making a list of the aims and ambitions of our characters and figuring out interesting trials to test and illuminate them. No more just 'one damn thing after another.' Unless the 'filler' is thrilling enough.

Anyway, that's all for now about that. "I'll say no more, till I have a drink." (of diet sody, for me) There's about an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon (the sun's only down about 8:20 PM these days) that I really feel the urge and get any real writing done. But I'm thinking, thinking, about it all day. I can't help it. And that's a Thursday Thought.