What a Lovely Day It Is, but Isn’t Every Day that Way?

No news overnight, of course. However, I’m not sitting here, just taking chair space. I am busy writing something all the time. Currently I’m checking over past writings for possibly sending them out to some national contests, actually international contests, for some subscribers for the magazine reside in other countries. The items in mind I have never sent anywhere till now. It will take months to know the result of such contests, but one must be patient. Let me add here, three requirements are necessary to succeed at this sort of contest. One is patience after you send out your manuscript. Don’t watch the kettle come to a boil. Another is awareness that there is always someone who writes better than you. And the third one is the necessity to stay busy. Begin a new story, or finish the one already started. Patience, awareness, and necessity, in this order, begin with PAN. Get accustomed to the word PAN. Make it your mantra. Don’t reverse it and take a nap. Stay busy with writing.

While I’m busy at this project, I write little on the current novel or my nonfiction book, write just enough to keep in touch. But the stories for any contest will go out and it will be back to the other. Of course, we’ll also soon know the topics for next year’s League contests, and they will take priority.

(What I can’t understand are those would-be writers to say they don’t know what to write about. While they don’t have ideas, I don’t have time.)

As you start a new writing project, remember what David McCullough said was the third aspect of writing: thinking. I’m sure he didn’t intend it comes third in the doing, I’d say second. This is the order I pose them for myself: research, thinking, and actual writing. Of course, one thinks all the time he’s researching and making notes, and while writing. But during the thinking process, an author is concerned with such things as how to start the magnum opus or what to tell when. I like my idea of writing something first and then deciding where it goes. But you must decide which method is best for you. ♥