Good Days

Last night’s writing group was excellent. Only two people showed up, which was monetarily unfortunate for Melanie, but very fortunate for Michael and me. We discussed a short-short that Michael had written, the responsibilities of an artist in recording true-life events, and they both offered wonderful feedback on my “Saint and Cynic” story. After incorporating some of those suggestions, I’m going to cut this one off and start circulating it.

Melanie also wondered if I had done anything with my “Fear Sphere” stories since the last one. I haven’t, other than thinking about them. She encouraged me to write more of them and collect them together. I hope I can get some of these projects rolling when Ryan moves out. Having that spare room for working in the early morning will be a blessing, as long as I take advantage of it.

Tonight, John, Brad and I donned our collective instruments to become Flat Rabbit, and we had a very good night. We covered a lot of material and added a few songs to the list. We played “Sweet Child o’ Mine” better than we ever have, I think, and even went over a bunch of old originals that Brad and John wrote years ago. All in all, it was a fun night, and I was reluctant to break down my equipment.

I did have one problem, though. My Strat started squealing, and I traced it down to what seems to be a jack problem. I took the jack plate off to check the insides but it seemed fine, with no loose wires. It worries me a bit, since I will be trying out for Better Than Nothing on Tuesday night. Later in the night, the Strat played fine, so I may have put off the problem for a little while, but I need to recreate it at home and figure out what’s wrong.

Tem Group

The Tem writing group meets tonight. For the second meeting in a row, I won’t have my homework done. My excuse is that this week has been very busy; I have something going every day this week, both at lunch and in the evening, so I haven’t had time to do the assignment. That’s what I get for waiting until the last moment, rather than completing the assignment last week, when I had time.

I will be receiving some critiques on my short story “The Saint and the Cynic” tonight, and I’m looking forward to that. I got a surprise critique on it last night from one of the people at Stories for All Seasons, and she had some valid points and a couple of good ideas about different directions I could take the story. (I owe her a critique, too. I had forgotten about that until she mentioned mine, and I kind of feel like a heel about that.)

Busy Day

Brainstormed online with friends Mary and Michael about Michael’s story, worked more on the revision of “Saint and Cynic.” Did homework for tomorrow night’s Tem workshop, which resulted in a new poem called “The Words Not Spoken,” an experiment based mainly on Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” I borrowed the form from this poem, and the title was inspired by “The Road Not Taken” by the same poet. It was a fun experiment; I haven’t written a good poem for a while. (Some would say I’ve never written a good poem!) I also attended Stories for All Seasons. Busy day for creativity.

Any noun can be verbed

Lunched with Michael Main. (There I go, turning a noun into a verb. Shame on me!) We discussed “Saint and Cynic” briefly, and discussed progress on one of his stories as well. In the evening, I worked on “Saint and Cynic” briefly, but quit in favor of spending some time playing Magic: The Gathering with my son. Will complete the revision tomorrow at lunch and in the evening.

More Cynic than Saint

Worked on revision of “Saint and Cynic.” I’m beginning to hate the piece, I think. When I originally wrote it, I went for a parable tone, and people responded positively to that before. But when I read it now, I don’t like that tone. It feels flat and lifeless. However, I don’t have enough time to completely change the tone of the piece, so I guess I’ll just have to grit my teeth and make the small changes for now.