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 71:And Mean While in Indiana.
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 71:And Mean While in Indiana
I struggled through my morning pages. This part of Amazing Buchanan and the Beast is uncharted territory. I am following the outline but discovered the panster in me likes to take the wheel. The conversation between Amazing and Will happens on the houseboat and not on a trail in the bayou. This part of the story is hard because I am unfamiliar with boating. It requires me to stop and do research. Maybe I should have thought about that before I went and made all of these changes.
I wrote a couple of cascade poems and had ideas for a couple more. Many mixed feelings wander around in my soul about writing all of this fast-moving poetry. A stack of them mounting up in a folder on my desktop, but I question if they amount to much. I sometimes think I am playing a game of hide and seek with words. The right ones seem to be hiding from me. Maybe I will find them later.
The book I am currently reading right now and Entry 71:And Mean While in Indiana
I finished Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina today. Part Eight boiled down to Vronsky going off to fight in an undeclared war and Levin finding faith. The reader can assume Vronsky will die in the war. He gave his daughter to Karenina, which seems tragic. He won’t recover from Anna’s death. Levin finally discovers the meaning of life in the Christianity he’d been taught in childhood. His search boiled down to simple faith. It all seems resolved and tied up in a bow. I think Levin’s struggle was similar to the one the writer encounters.
What I’m listening to right now and Entry 71:And Mean While in Indiana
I decided to listen to Melissa Etheridge’s Yes I am this morning. I need the force of her powerful voice to push me into allowing my fingers to explore the keyboard in search of the perfect words today.
The thing I am most thankful for at this moment.
I am thankful they didn’t bring the toxic waste from the train wreck in Ohio to a landfill near me. My community has enough toxic waste from all the factories that closed their doors and left their mess behind. If the heartland isn’t careful, we will become a toxic waste dump. I caught a town hall meeting where they were transporting the poison to be dumped. People there were angry because they weren’t told before transporting the material.
This old lady says
I hate to clean up other people’s messes. It is so disrespectful when they leave behind a disaster that other people have to deal with in the future. It reflects how much disregard the feelings of others. There is a lot of mess cleaning these days.
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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