December 2, 2011

Hello all. I'm back!

Okay. November was crazy. But after a day of rest, I am totally ready to open up a new chapter (no pun intended) in my writing. I learned a lot in National Novel Writing Month. I learn a lot about myself as a writer every year that I do it. And this year I learned that I can really push myself as a writer, and that maybe I need to do some more discovering in terms of who I am as a writer. I realized that this is seriously something I'd like to do professionally. And in order to do that, I'm going to need to find out exactly who I am as a writer. So, that's what I'm setting out to do.

Nevertheless, I'm putting my NaNo work aside for right now. It's great to have and I'll get to it eventually, but first and foremost I want to finish my first book and prepare it for submission. In terms of editing, I need to clean it out and make it all shiny and perfect. I'm excited regardless of the fact that I know it's going to be a MAJOR pain in the ass.

I also want to be committed to posting on here, because I feel like that by writing about my own writing and posting parts of it to read, I'll get to know myself as a writer. I also want to have a solid writing blog to look back on and reflect on in a few years. In essence, this is a time capsule. Thank you. I will try to post around 1-2 posts a day, whether it be philosophical speculation, a onewordforoneminute or a snippet from something I'm working on.

For today, let's start with just that. Here's a short passage from my book Letters to Mom:

We all hung out and listened to my underground punk music until about seven when we finally heard dad's car pull up in the driveway. When he came in, he took his coat off and asked, “Hey? I didn't get invited to the party?” We were all sprawled out over the couch and on the floor, drinking soda, eating Cheeto's and listening to the sweet sound of Secondhand Serenade. I was sitting in Isaac's lap and had orange dust all over my face when he came in.
We all just laughed and said him and asked how his day at work was. “Is it okay if Sadie and Patrick stay for dinner tonight?” I asked, pouting. Isaac rubbed my leg and giggled.
“The more the merrier,” dad said, going into the kitchen to grab a drink, “I won't crash your little get together. I'll be up in my office if you need me. I'll call in the pizza for delivery in like twenty minutes or so?”
We all nodded and once dad was upstairs, we went back to talking. “Your dad is fucking amazing, Eli,” Patrick said, “If we had a dad like that growing up, maybe we wouldn't be fucked up.” Isaac grabbed me tight. Sadie looked at me worried.
“Patrick,” Isaac said, feeling responsible for his brother's foolishness, “Our parents are fine. They're just a little bit different.”
“They kicked you out,” Patrick pointed out. It was true. My dad would never kick me out. I knew that now, even if I wasn't so sure just a couple of months ago. Dad was amazing, mom, but I felt bad to think that Patrick and Isaac were always comparing themselves to mine.
Isaac gave Patrick a stone cold look, “It worked out, okay? I'm really happy here. It's actually helping our relationship.”
“Okay,” Patrick said defeated, “Have you guys picked a date yet?”

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