Friday, July 8, 2011

THE BIG PUSH–A WEEK ONE RECAP

This past week has been fraught with mental peril and sleep deprivation.  If I believed in word counts- something that I officially stopped believing in this past week- then’d I’d be all like, “THIS IS HOW MANY WORDS I’VE WRITTEN!” but I don’t anymore.

I’m much more interested in the story this time out.  The numbers involved in telling it can go to hell.  Smile

LEROY STACKS has turned into a bit more of a mercurial character than he was in the first and second drafts- in the first draft, he was a wet blanket of a man, always reacting and never really taking the offensive until HAHA NO SPOILERS HERE.  Draft #3 has turned him into a bit more of a social force to be reckoned with- he takes control and handles things his own way… sometimes with his fists (someone’s put on some muscle since their last outing), and other times just by saying whatever he feels.  I wrote a bit this morning that involved him at an open mic night after an interesting encounter at a local carnival that left him a bit romantically shaken up, and I found it funny, touching and a bit absurd that he let loose with a crazy story from his past in order to cope with the new, mysterious element in his life, but fun all the same.

I think “fun” is the keyword here.

I like this first story of his now because it’s become fun again.  I know how it ends, and I can’t wait to get to that moment.  I’m enjoying letting it play out the way it is in my head- something full fledged and real; the previous hundred thousand words or so spread over countless files have created an amalgam of a completed product in my head- I’m not cutting and pasting old stuff into a new files- situations and ideas that I merely sketched out before are being put back on the page completely whole as well as brand new, and I’m having a blast.   I used to hate this thing because I couldn’t get it out of my head, and I had so much that ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAPPEN, and now?

Now, I’m okay with it.  I’m giddy at what the future holds for this particular venture.  As wacky as this tale is going to end up being, as long as I can tell it naturally, then I’ll be more than happy with the end result. 

I think that’s my ultimate goal with this project, to be honest.  It’s not about success or failure at this point in the game; it’s just about me being happy with what I’m doing.

I’m perfectly allowed to be selfish in that regard, right?