Long Winter

It's been a long winter filled with long work hours, amongst other things, and very little writing in between. Hopefully this post will spark a resurgence in creativity.

I've begun collecting ideas for a book of short stories. Right now there are just titles with vague concepts. See below.

Walking with the Living, Sleeping with the Dead - just heard someone say this in the office and found the phrase fascinating. I don't know if it has any real meaning but I'm sure it can be put to use. This could used for an obvious vampire story, or something a bit more philosophical, maybe a story of a family dealing with the recent death of someone close.

Saving Fish from Drowning - this came from a ted talk (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html) by Amy Tan and she mentioned this phrase as a part of a Burmese folk tale. She already used it as a title for one of her books but I think it could still be used as a short story, if not as the title than as a central theme.

Cadillacs and Rose Milk - been starting and stopping on this story. The title phrase came to me one day and I just thought it sounded beautiful and romantic. The story I started writing is not as beautiful or romantic; it became a prequel, of sorts, to another unfinished story but I didn't like where it was headed so I stopped. I keep trying to revitalize it but I'm thinking I'll have to start over. I don't mind the idea of a prequel but I just didn't appreciate where the current story was going.

Sentences

Here are two sentences from the same story. The actual story is nothing but these two sentences and the writing is influenced in no small part by John Irving, possibly the best fiction author alive today.

"The chandelier in my house was an Old World relic, something specifically called for and transferred across the globe, and has been in the main hall since the day the ceiling was built to hold it."

"The day I committed suicide I knew exactly what I was thinking."

Two New Ideas

We were at a bar and I was talking with a friend. I'm not sure how it came up, but this is what he said.

"You can't fix holiness."

I think this is a great quote and opens many possibilities for stories and thoughts. When have you ever heard of someone trying to fix holiness? Is it something that needs fixing? Can it be fixed? I just think it's an interesting concept to be incorporated somewhere.

250 Toilet Seat Covers
I'm standing at the urinal at a bar and see something very strange. In front of me, written in bold sharpie, are the words: "For a good time, call 555-7682." Two things strike me. First, that is one of the most overused lines in bathroom wall literature. The writer really could not come up with anything better, especially in such a prominent location? Perhaps he has other writings scattered about with greater literary merit and this just happens to be the one that we all notice.

Second, that's my phone number.

The idea for this story came from two different sources. I'm reading "Straight Man" by Richard Russo right now and the concept I have for this character is similar to the main character in his book. Second, I was at a bar called Busby's and above the toilet are those disposable covers and it has printed on it, very proudly, "250 Toilet Seat Covers" as if other brands would never package that many covers together. So the story is about this guy, a teacher (perhaps) who gets put into these ridiculous situations, spawned by his number being written on the wall. It's basically a quest to find out who wrote his number and why and a story about the people who end up calling him. At the same time, he's trying to put a good face on his life by being proud/bragging/showing off something odd that isn't necessarily something to be proud of, such as housing 250 toilet seat covers.

Still fleshing out the details.

Premature Exclamation

"sure thin!g" - Support research to stop premature exclamation. Few realize that it afflicts one in five typers

Recent Activity

Time was, I could sit down at a computer and the ideas would just flow through my hands, into the keyboard, and before I knew it, I would have a story. It wouldn't always be well written, but the ideas would be there and it would be finished.

Can't seem to do that these days. My serial story on this site is lagging, apologies. Plus I'm losing inspiration for the play I'm co-writing. My script idea I came up with several months ago is stale.

But I have generated more ideas, as is want to happen. It's a film noir screenplay. It opens with a man driving down a lonely road, being followed, with a dying girl in his backseat. He's the narrator. It flashbacks to how he met the girl and what lead them to the present situation (details still unknown).

I think I started writing something else, as well. Ideas keep coming and going. But lately I work too much to properly write.

This isn't really a good post, but it's related to what this blog is about.

Purpose

I already have a journal (goldh37.livejournal.com) that was originally used specifically to write about new ideas I had. It has started to veer away from that goal, so I have created this blog. It will be specifically involving fiction and poetry that I have written, or ideas that I am working out. Some may be thought out and some may be stream of conscious.

Please comment if you have any positive or negative feedback.

Thank you,

Harrison