Saturday, 19 July 2003

Finally a bit of writing. I got 500 words on a new version of a story I'd gotten stuck on earlier. I've kept most of the setting and the sfinal idea, but it's pretty different otherwise. It seems to be going better. In particular, I know how it ends, which is always plus in knowing where to put the beginning.

The first big test comes tomorrow when I sit down to work on it again. Do I start in on the next segment, or do I start fiddling around with the stuff I've already written? If it's the latter, that's a good sign that I'm still not on the right track.

I'll let you know.

This project doesn't really have a title yet. It's kind of love story, though. Jim Kelly told me that I should write a love story next. In a sense I've written two already, but each kind of veered off into something else, making me feel like I still needed to write a love story. This one may be closer. Write now the working title is just "Lovestory."

Did you ever notice that titles are hard? They don't seem to be for everyone--some people come up with great titles. Other people don't. I'm somewhere in between. Every now and then I'll get a title that's perfect, but usually all I come up with are serviceable titles, and sometimes not even that. More than once I've thought that I should just brainstorm for an hour or two on titles, make a list of the great ones, and then run down it to see see if any suggest a great story. A great title doesn't make a story, or sell it, but it doesn't hurt, and I suspect that it makes a difference, especially in things like winning awards.

I've been getting my runs in. Since the 4-mile run last Sunday I've had two 2.5-mile runs and two 1.5-mile runs, for a total of 12 miles this week. That's just about perfect. Over the next few weeks I'll work up to 15-20 miles, and then pause there for a while.

We've been less diligent about lifting, but did go today.

It's not quite a month since the solstice. Already the days are noticeably shorter. It's better, though, this year. In past years I've started dreading the approach of winter so early that I ruin my fall. I think I'm on track to avoid that this year.