Recently, I’ve been listening to some Celtic rock and Celtic punk bands. Not because I felt an overwhelming need, a musical itch I had to scratch, much like my recent compulsion to listen to Radiohead’s OK Computer, a compulsion that burned itself out after two days. Rather, it’s for research purposes. Part of “THOD” revolvesContinue reading “On Musical Musings”
Tag Archives: THOD
On the Weekend’s Plans
I brought home no work this weekend. The past few weekends, I’ve brought something home to work on and write. Not this weekend. Though, I suppose if an e-mail had come through this afternoon with a dozen spreadsheets, I’d have slapped those onto my flash drive and cleaned them up tomorrow or Sunday. The truthContinue reading “On the Weekend’s Plans”
On Today’s Word Coinage
I had to coin a word today. “Hyper-south.” I was writing some dialogue. Two characters were talking about a situation that had gone horribly wrong. “It went south,” as one might say. But then the situation, which really couldn’t or shouldn’t have gotten any worse, did. Saying it went “further south” didn’t work. It wasContinue reading “On Today’s Word Coinage”
On This Week’s Musical Discovery
I’ve learned over the years that writing is occasionally less a planned activity than it is a series of serendipitous accidents. Consider the BBC’s Scotland Introducing podcast. I can’t tell you why, over a year ago, I started listening to this podcast. But I do. Every Friday, I download the new episode and give itContinue reading “On This Week’s Musical Discovery”
On This Morning’s Writing
While I’ve talked a bit about “THOD” the past few weeks, except for this snatch of dialogue, I’ve not really offered much insight at all into what I’m writing. Except that “THOD” is not actually the title, one of the main characters goes by Freddy, the story spans twenty-five years, that sort of thing. OverContinue reading “On This Morning’s Writing”
On Today’s Writing Discovery
Forty-two years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. I just thought I’d point that out today, on this most Douglas Adams-like of anniversaries. I would rather talk (more) about writing. Yesterday was windy and not too hot, so late afternoon I went kite-flying. It’s about a half-mile walk to the giant openContinue reading “On Today’s Writing Discovery”
On Working My Way Through Writing
Maybe it was the amount of wordage I produced at work on Thursday and Friday that left my mental space feeling bruised and battered. Maybe it was the summerlike mugginess that left me feeling physically drained. Maybe it was a little bit of both. Or maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever it was, IContinue reading “On Working My Way Through Writing”
On Misplacing Files
I need a better filing system. I’ve lost and/or misplaced two things on my computer in the past forty-eight hours. Or rather, I’ve discovered the two missing things in the past forty-eight hours. One. The macro I coded Friday night? I had it saved in a text file, and in cleaning off my desktop yesterdayContinue reading “On Misplacing Files”
On the Latest Writing
It’s taken four chapters of “THOD,” but I have finally found my narrative voice. There’s nothing objectively wrong with what I’ve written previously. It’s just feels flat to me. Last night I was working on a scene between one of the story’s protagonists, Freddy, and someone he knows briefly in his youth, a woman namedContinue reading “On the Latest Writing”
On Writing, Nuns, and Rains
Mr. Larson dies. I wrote yesterday how, in writing out a little bit of the third chapter of “THOD,” a character appeared. A grandfatherly-type, a Richard Kiley sort. Mr. Larson. He’s a neighbor. A boy rides his bicycle past his house nearly every day. He tends to flowers in his front yard. He lived throughContinue reading “On Writing, Nuns, and Rains”