It's hard to believe that we are almost done with January 2023. Wasn't it just New Year's Day?
Well if you're like me, you had some heartfelt goals for 2023 - especially as it relates to writing. Are you also like me and floundering just a bit in these opening weeks of the new year?
Sure. It's ok to face up to it. It's still early, though. More than enough time to get back on track. One of my goals was to write a first draft of a short story each month - 12 stories by the end of the year.
So.... I still have almost two weeks to flesh out my story for January.
And here is the idea I have been toying with since about mid-December: a middle-aged cook with literary aspirations tries to recreate one of his grandmother's recipes one day at work while trying to make sense of his most-recent failed relationship.
At least that's what I have so far. I'm neurotic to a fault. I have jotted down a good amount of notes, even toyed with a few variations for a first line. But, I've been stuck on a detail: my protagonist's name.
Today was my day off at work. A day off means sleeping in a little, then errands: checking my post office box and visiting the book store. Two of my magazines were in my box: The Writer and Entrepreneur.
I bought eight books at the book store. I can't help it. Today's haul: pigeon feathers and other stories, by John Updike; Independence Day, by Richard Ford; Babbit, by Sinclair Lewis; Saint Maybe, by Anne Tyler; My Heart Laid Bare, by Joyce Carol Oates; The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, Poems for Men, Robert Bly, James Hillman and Michael Meade, editors; Write Away, One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, by Elizabeth George; and 140 Characters, a Style Guide for the short Form, by Dom Sagolla.
If you want to be a writer, you must read and read and read some more. Can't say that enough. It helps that I love to read.
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