True Life and Fiction

Today I'm ranting guest blogging at Donna 's place. Won't you please stop by and read a very revealing article and honest review? Be sure to comment if you feel so inclined. Just use the link provided with Donna's name above to get to the party!

  S ince I posted a fine article for my first installment of the Insecure Writers Support Group (a great contribution, if I do say so) allow me to rant and ramble on my second post. I'm one of those writers who seem to have more ideas than time and/or proper motivation. Usually, I have a hundred random ideas rushing through my head on any given day. Occasionally I must force my ass into a chair, pick one idea, and run with it. Unfortunately, my hard drive full of half-baked and half-written stories tells me I'm not too good at picking out the solid ideas that might have even the smallest chance of turning into something resembling a finished product. Occasionally though, with enough pushing, self-loathing, and bitter ornery resolve I manage to complete something once in a while. I continue to work on my mystery crime story, which I'm now convinced, has an absolutely unique main character but my mind often drifts to stories of fantasy and, uh ... things o...

W ell, I think I've finally gone over the edge. Yes, I've found another typewriter that I just HAD TO HAVE. I must say though, that I think I just bought the best that Smith-Corona ever made. The only thing I can do now to improve my typewriter collection is to buy more of the same model in different colors ... although, I've kind of been eyeballing one of the old Corona 3 foldable typewriters lately. Here's my typecast from the latest typewriter in my collection: I also must leak some future news in the writing area. I think you'll like it, but you'll just have to wait until next month. I actually thought about writing some of my mystery/crime/suspense works in progress on this new typewriter but then thought about the lack of auto correct, and cut and past, and quickly squelched that idea before it could fester.

L ast weekend we went to the beach with our daughter and grandchildren. As usual, we spent an hour arguing about my driving ability and being lost for every ten minutes of enjoyment. It was a great time had by all. In fact, We're already talking about going again. Having not been to the beaches of Florida for some time, I realized we'd forgotten some basic knowledge about beach-going. So, in grand JL Stratton fashion, I must propagate my pedagogy to the world so that you may learn from my mistakes. First and foremost, if I could give you just one piece of advice, that would be: Wear sunscreen. Of course, this is followed my instruction that you should apply the sunscreen in places you would not think the rays of the sun might reach because, at the beach anyway, the sun seems to defy all physics and logical thinking to create sunburns in places one might previously thought of as "covered." Secondly: Bring a swim suit. I know. One would think this ...

This being my first venture into the world of participative blogging, I thought I'd start with a related subject area, and one I personally have quite an amount of trouble with ... where to begin. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that readers of my stories have (in not so many words) told me that I occasionally ramble along before getting to the meat of my prose. I know there is much advice out there about where one should begin a story but this advice is often much easier to read than to actually follow in deed. In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland , this question is asked and answered as such: "Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." This is fine advice that I often adhere to when beginning a new story, especially with a new character. I like to take a little time and burn a few thousand words finding out just who this character is and what the character is all about. Beginning a...