I’ve never been good about keeping a journal. It all boils down to consistency. There are days when I skip making an entry. Life can crowd out the time I need to write down my thoughts about a day’s events. I’ve also been reluctant to pose as an expert on the writing process. If I knew anything of value about writing, my work would already be in print. I went out on a skinny limb of a tall in 2022 when I shared my 365 days of thankfulness. The exercise forced me to put myself out there with my soft belly exposed. Thank you for joining me on my journey in the written word. Therefore, I plan to keep a journal in 2023 to document my progress. I will call Entry 48: The Illusion of Perfection.
Note: I consider editing an important part of the writing process. Editing is where all the artistry happens.
My morning writing before I started Entry 48: The Illusion of Perfection
I enjoyed writing my morning pages. I am about to start Chapter 30 of Amazing Buchanan and the Beast. The characters revealed something interesting to me this morning. Will is going to discover a letter written by his great-grandfather Liam Chandler. It will clear up some of the mystery about the curse that turned him into a rougarou. I like it when the characters reveal a part of the story to me. It makes the writing much more interesting, especially when Word Daddy leaves for one of his many vacations.
One of my biggest handicaps as a writer is my search for perfection. Every comma needs to be in the right place, and every word choice needs to be right before I let go. In the real world, that will never happen. I need to get over myself and get on with the plan.
The book I am currently reading right now and Entry 48: The Illusion of Perfection
I am reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. It has occurred to me that it may take a while to get through the story. I haven’t had much reading time in the past week because my evenings have been busier than normal. Russian society is transitioning, and modern trends are replacing the old Russian matchmaking tradition. Levin has come to the city to pursue Kitty Shcherbatsky. He discovers he has a rival for her affection from Vronsky. The mother favors Vronsky, but the father wants Levin because he appears to be the more stable of the two.
What I’m listening to right now and Entry 48: The Illusion of Perfection
I am listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicles. Rooster saw them play at the Orange Show many years ago in San Bardo, California. He loves to rub that little piece of Rooster trivial in my face. He claims he can’t remember a thing about the concert because he didn’t go for the music.
The thing I am most thankful for at this moment.
I am thankful I am a child of the 1960s. We had better music back then, and times were much more simple. The country was in a crisis because of the Vietnam War, which wasn’t supposed to be a war. If it was a police action, it certainly got out of control. We lived with the constant threat of nuclear weapons being dropped from the sky. We lived with a president being assassinated along with Marin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Still, it was a simpler time because we could still talk to one another even if we disagreed.
This old lady says
There is too much anger in the world right now. We need to step back from what we see on the box every night and talk to one another about the stuff that matters. We need to take a few minutes to be thankful for one another, because we are all we got, people.
Who is Molly Shea?
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
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