I almost forgot. A serendipitous trip to B&N netted a book I’m sure both J– and I will live to regret buying, No Plot, No Problem. As a writer (went to school, got degree), it goes against every instinct, class, experience, and method I can think of. Basically, you have 31 days to write 50,000 words. Other than that, there’s not much too it. The book goes into caging your Inner Editor, some motivational tricks, and the esprit de corps you’ll need to accomplish such a ridiculous goal; beyond that, it’s a fairly easy technique.

The hard part is that I’ve committed to doing it, not just to J–, but to myself. At around 1600 words a day, it’s something I would never set as a goal for myself precisely because it goes against everything I know about writing.

But, as I thought about it, I remembered trying to write like other authors (comon you writers, where’s you Hemmingway hack?). Doing something like this is a jump start to getting the fingers nimble and the juices flowing. My writers block has grown a beard and taken up paint-watching, so anything I can do to coax him out is a good thing. It won’t be publishable, here or otherwise, but it might be constructive.

Updates to be posted