22DEC17 Found while Dreaming

The working title for my novel. It's about a man adrift. Aren't they all? I mean my characters,not men in general. While searching for his purpose he gets caught up in an old chase for a ghost ship. eventually he finds the answers he needs, well, most of them.

He is a black man with African roots trying to come to grips with being a citizen of the galaxy while maintaining a link to his own culture. he is also a pacifist forced to do violence on occasion, in fact he has chosen a violent way of life for some reason.

full disclosure, i have been toying with the idea for a couple of years now, but i get about fifty pages in and it kind of falls apart. I am at an integral action scene and i just kind of mentally say "eh," and move on to something else. I have the ending, even ideas for the next story, i just can't move the damn thing forward for some reason. but I'm doing it now.

I'm fifteen pages into the re-write and it feels like it's gonna get done finally. it is good for me to have something to focus on. I don't do well with down time and i have way too much of that now.

16Dec17 novel?

Well, the school thing is essentially over. Next semester consists of studying for the comprehensive exam, that and figuring out what to do with myself.

The last couple of weeks have been a struggle. I'm coming to grips with the reality of having more free time. My school journey mostly consisted of complaining I had no time to write what i wanted. I  have the time now, I just don't know what i want to write anymore.

There are several old short stories I thought sound structurally, but poorly written. I am breathing life into them with the goal of eventually sending them out. Was never confident enough to do that before. Hooray me. But that is more editing than creating.

School made me a better writer but changed the stories I read and now want to write. I'm actively looking for deeper meaning in things now. I mean I always have, but now, shit, its all about levels and layers of meanings. A damn story can't just be a story anymore.

What the hell is that?  I was warned school might change me, (Jason)

My ideas occupy this weird zone of wanting to write deeper but without all the pretentious bullshit sometimes present in what is considered literature. My ideas for stories now are mash ups of various genres with no clear place anywhere in fiction. In addition to this, I concentrate on short stories when the original goal was novel length works.

My muse casually asked over lunch why i wasn't working on a novel. I realized I hadn't even thought along those lines. Of course this is exactly what i need to be doing. She's good like that. (smile)
Its a task that requires focus and commitment and perfect for the guy with time on his hands. I have become so concerned with writing a good short story I missed the big picture.

Now i just have to come up with an idea that is suitable for the novel form. I have several re-occurring characters i want to see do other things. I just have to decide which one i want to spend the next year with.

I'll keep you posted. as always.