I got some bad news a couple of days ago. I listened closely to comments at my writers’ group and got the feeling that I’m in trouble with my novel. I thought I was almost finished, but it turns out I’ll need to delete about 80 pages of false beginning and start again. I checked with Dave, the alpha writer of the group, and he confirmed what K had already told me. So it’s back to the drawing board.
Problem is I’m so goal-oriented, and this goal just keeps receding into the distance. I think I’m close and it scampers away. Maddening.
The COVID numbers game is pretty depressing this week. The US is exceptional once again, leading the world in new cases and deaths. Around 70K new cases and 1100 deaths every day. And just over 4M US official cases, which means about 40M US citizens have been infected. And that’s *still* only about 12% of the population, so you can see how much further this thing has to run. Without a vaccine we’re pretty much doomed to stay in COVID limbo until late 2021, maybe into 2022. There won’t be much of an economy to come back to by then.
But my blogger friend Robert over at Blue Heron found something that puts a better spin on things. Go pig, indeed! COVID lockdown can be very productive if we let it. I’m working on it.
Five years ago this week K and I were in Scotland, visiting our friend Annette in Glasgow and then attending The Open. Headline picture above is me and Annette’s then-boyfriend playing a round at the Kittocks course in St. Andrews. That was a rough round – very windy, hilly and I didn’t strike the ball well that day. Enjoyed it nonetheless. Picture below is our view from The Road Hole at St. Andrews Old Course.
And next I’m posing mid-round at Carnoustie (!), one of the world’s toughest courses. Great times.
On that trip, from Scotland we went to Kentucky to see family and have an 80th birthday celebration for my Dad. Picture below is from our gathering at Armco Park, eating the worst barbeque ever. Those were the days, only five short years ago.
And ten years ago this month Emily and her cousin Eric were in San Diego and we visited a lavender farm not far from the house. Beautiful spot.
I think that the first thing a writer or artist should do is stop listening to other people telling you how to do it. I was an architecture major in college. I had been working on an avant garde design for a commercial project for six months. I showed it to an architect I knew and he convinced me to dumb it down. Unfortunately I listened to him. My professor called me in and said he was giving me a C+ for the project. But the kicker was that he said he had been planning on sending it out to a national design competition for an award before I mucked with it. I have never forgotten this expensive lesson.
There is only one you and your voice is your voice. Do it your way.
Thanks Robert. Sounds like a great lesson learned. I’m kicking the whole thing around in my head and I’m happy to have your counterpoint.