A Traditional Canoe (Proa) from Puluwat
4 August 2009
Starting this blog in the morning as I sit in my man cave checking on the news and getting ready to write. I'm trying to put some discipline back into my life after being carried hither and yon by the happy currents and tides of free-fall retirement.
First goal: Sleep in until I can't sleep anymore. It's the only way to start the day. So far so good.
Second: Have a quick breakfast. Lingering in the kitchen over eggs and toast with the clean-up required afterwards cuts into writing time.
Third: A quick check of TV news/politics (I'm a junkie).
Fourth: The laptop is open and we get going. The book is an adventure novel for young people. It's set in the western Pacific at the outbreak of WWII. Two boys, one a white boy from Massachusetts, the other, an island boy from Guam, find themselves on the run from the invading Japanese. They leave the island in a small sailboat and find themselves struggling to survive on the open sea. Important subplot: The spirits of the islands ancestors.
All right, turn off the TV and get going.
5 August 2009
First goal realized as itemized above: Got up this morning when I felt like it.
Second goal as stated above: Not as successful. Made myself a good breakfast rather than a quick breakfast bar. All I ate on the boat for three weeks for breakfast was breakfast bars. You can get mighty sick of breakfast bars.
Third goal was to get my politics fix: I ignored the TV. Amazing.
Fourth goal: I got down to writing. Actually, I'm re-reading what I've written so far. It's pretty critical to keep an eye on where you've been and where you're going and get a feel for the tone/mood of the book. Are the characters developing as you imagined, is the book moving/flowing well? Will young people identify with what's going on and who it's happening to? I see a need, on the next big re-write, to develop the conflict between the boys more, to put it up there in big red letters. The resolution of their conflict is one of the major subplots in the book. I'm going back to Guam in October and I'll spend some time with Manny Sikau, a friend of mine, who is a master navigator from Puluwat. Need to pick his brain for the critical details that make a book like this work. I've known Manny for many years and voyaged with him. He's the real thing.
4 August 2009
Starting this blog in the morning as I sit in my man cave checking on the news and getting ready to write. I'm trying to put some discipline back into my life after being carried hither and yon by the happy currents and tides of free-fall retirement.
First goal: Sleep in until I can't sleep anymore. It's the only way to start the day. So far so good.
Second: Have a quick breakfast. Lingering in the kitchen over eggs and toast with the clean-up required afterwards cuts into writing time.
Third: A quick check of TV news/politics (I'm a junkie).
Fourth: The laptop is open and we get going. The book is an adventure novel for young people. It's set in the western Pacific at the outbreak of WWII. Two boys, one a white boy from Massachusetts, the other, an island boy from Guam, find themselves on the run from the invading Japanese. They leave the island in a small sailboat and find themselves struggling to survive on the open sea. Important subplot: The spirits of the islands ancestors.
All right, turn off the TV and get going.
5 August 2009
First goal realized as itemized above: Got up this morning when I felt like it.
Second goal as stated above: Not as successful. Made myself a good breakfast rather than a quick breakfast bar. All I ate on the boat for three weeks for breakfast was breakfast bars. You can get mighty sick of breakfast bars.
Third goal was to get my politics fix: I ignored the TV. Amazing.
Fourth goal: I got down to writing. Actually, I'm re-reading what I've written so far. It's pretty critical to keep an eye on where you've been and where you're going and get a feel for the tone/mood of the book. Are the characters developing as you imagined, is the book moving/flowing well? Will young people identify with what's going on and who it's happening to? I see a need, on the next big re-write, to develop the conflict between the boys more, to put it up there in big red letters. The resolution of their conflict is one of the major subplots in the book. I'm going back to Guam in October and I'll spend some time with Manny Sikau, a friend of mine, who is a master navigator from Puluwat. Need to pick his brain for the critical details that make a book like this work. I've known Manny for many years and voyaged with him. He's the real thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment