Writing Notes

I went to a friend's house yesterday for a knitting intervention. We got to talking about reviving our dormant writing group. My friend's been working on a historical novel for many years, and I've been puttering around in a number of projects myself. Here's what I have on the shelf, in order of viability.

There's all the stories I wrote about our life in Costa Rica, some of which have been published in various magazines. Poems and letters, too. It needs shaping of course, and some kind of unifying device. The problem is, it would fall into the memoir genre, and do I seriously want to bring another one of those into the world? I know I don't want to read another one. Last night, as I was wrestling with the sleeping gods, I thought about putting one of the essays on this blog to see if I could stomach revisiting them. We'll see.

I might be qualified to write Leukemia for Dummies or Field Guide to Bone Marrow Transplants but the question is, again, would I want to? I might not be able to bring the proper gravitas to the subject. The potential to offend would be great, which I suppose is better than being on Oprah. No offense to the world's most famous woman, but I don't see myself baring my soul on national television. I'd feel compelled to joke about a seriously painful subject.

There's a story to be told about my son's cross country team, which won the Rhode Island State Championship in 2007. I've already given it some thought (and a title: The Little Team That Could, a small high school's cross country team's season of glory), and have discussed the idea with a young man who knows most of the history leading up to the culminating moments. Having a collaborator would definitely help. Maybe it's time to move this from the back burner.

Finally, there's my so-called novel. Doesn't every writer want to believe they have one in them? I have a working title, pages of notes and outlines, character sketches, and even some crude attempts at stitching together sentences and paragraphs. A little research is needed (but not too much), and a dollop of discipline. It's discipline I lack. It's one thing to post on a blog several times a week; quite another to nail oneself to the chair and write every day even when it's boring, painful or inconvenient to do so. That's what makes a "real" writer. I'm just taking notes.