SHORT STORY FRIDAY: Here’s the Story

“I write one page of masterpiece to 91 pages of $@*#. I try to put the $@*# in the wastebasket.”

Ernest Hemingway


There is no story.

Normally, today is Short Story Friday.

We already spoke yesterday regarding normality.

I made a choice today. I could hastily throw together a sub-standard story.

Or I could disappoint both of my adoring fans and say there’s no story today.

There’s no story today.

It is true that the only deadline here is my own. It is also true that some weeks are busier than others.

Available in The Write Side Shop (click the pic).

Further, it is true that The 100 Day Project is taking more time than I imagined. But at this point, on Day 27, I’m not giving up.

I have a list of story ideas. I have stories in progress.

None are ready for today. They will be.

Not today.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m writing daily.

I’m just not ready to hit publish.

I mean, after all, it took Margaret Mitchell ten years to write and edit Gone with the Wind.

I suspect if I got a book deal, or even an offer to be paid for my short stories, that I might be able to crank them out more quickly.

As it is, my deadlines and projects are mostly self-imposed.

In yesterday’s email, James Clear offered the following question:

Write down all the projects you are working on right now. What is the one thing that, if you had the courage to eliminate it entirely, would make all the others easier?

It’s not like what I want to give up a project for Lent. And it’s not like there aren’t things I’d like to give up that I just can’t.

So, maybe I do need to look at the project list and see what I could eliminate.

Or maybe I should say what else I could eliminate, because I did take some things off the list during Last Summer’s Great Unpleasantness ™. Although some are slowly creeping back in.

In full disclosure, while I won’t tell you what it is, I did set something aside last week. Something that I knew would take substantial time and effort.

I also knew for a while that it wasn’t important enough for me to give that time and effort.

If only I’d received James’ question last week.

But maybe there’s something else.

I’m going to think about that this weekend.

For today, it’s just giving up Short Story Friday. I’ll be back with that next week.

In the meantime this weekend, pray for Ukraine, pray for Russia, pray for America.

See you Monday.




THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

Gas crisis: Alaska governor says ‘Biden is searching for oil anywhere on the planet except at home’
FOXNews
“The breaking point is imminent,” Dunleavy told Fox News Digital. “Both Democrats and Republicans see that the U.S. is in a national energy emergency.” Read More.

Biden’s HHS Pushes ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility’ Agenda to Racialize Government
The Daily Signal
Mike Howell, a senior adviser on government relations at The Heritage Foundation, said he sees a Biden administration effort to reorganize the federal government along racial lines. Read More.

Trump says Biden is letting ‘radical climate extremists run our country’ as US sees record-high gas prices
FOXNews
“Energy prices are skyrocketing — they are going to infinity, all because of Joe Biden,” Trump told Fox News. Read More.

BORN ON THIS DAY

1903 – Lawrence Welk, American accordion player and bandleader (d. 1992)
1936 – Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 2016)
1950 – Bobby McFerrin, American singer-songwriter, producer, and conductor
1952 – Douglas Adams, English author and playwright (d. 2001)
1963 – Alex Kingston, English actress

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

 

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