Steve:
Not that I got into this business to be known, heralded and rich. I got into it because I like to make up stories and write them down and have other people read them. Still, as a guy who likes to make up stories and write them down and have other people read them, I do sometimes wonder why more people aren't reading them.
I think I know the answer. It goes back to those seven habits I don't have. I'm guessing one of them is "staying focused." (I have to guess because I haven't gone to Wikipedia to see what's really on the list. In addition to being only Mildly Effective, I'm also Rather Lazy.)
I've written historical whodunits and horror/romance satires and middle-grade mysteries and sorta-kinda cozies. And my thought process about what to do next usually looks something like this:
8 a.m. (driving to work): You know what would be fun to write? A Western!
10:44 a.m. (daydreaming during a slow moment at my desk): You know what would be really fun to write? A screwball comedy about coke-snorting 1970s stunt men!
12:53 p.m. (daydreaming during lunch): You know what would be even better? A nostalgia-soaked YA coming-of-age novel!
3:12 p.m. (daydreaming during another slow moment at my desk): You know what I should really do? A sci-fi/thriller/"men's adventure" mashup!
5:55 p.m. (driving home): Why aren't I trying to write the Great American Novel?
9:37 p.m. (daydreaming while helping my son get ready for bed): You know what would be fun to write? That Western!
Then 10 p.m. finally rolls around, and for the next hour I know exactly what I'm doing: working on whatever's due next. But as of 11:01 --
You know what would be really fun…?
(Sidenote: I'm not joking about any of those ideas. Those are all projects I'd like to get to eventually. Well, maybe not the Great American Novel. But I totally want to write about those coke-snorting 1970s stunt men.)
3 comments:
Mr. Hockensmith's fantasies are a luxury I never had. For me, there was only one motivating force: my declining bank balance, combined with a background as a failed journalist.
How flattering -- I pop by to see what Ed's been writing about lately and see a link to my own blog! Thanks, man!
Adding to the coincidence: Just a few minutes earlier I was ordering a copy of "Wolf Moon" online. I've been on a big Western kick the last few years and thought it was time to circle back to Ed Gorman Territory. The last time I was there I was reading "Relentless," a book I liked a lot because it was a gritty Western populated with life-sized humans, not larger-than-life archetypes. I'm guessing I'll like "Wolf Moon" for the same reason.
I've been a fan of yours since you started out, Steve. I had lunch today with a bookstore owner who follows my blog. He said he laughed out loud all the way through your post. I did too.
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