Constant renewal

The greatest thing about "being a writer," or living in a creative mode in any field, is its opportunity for constant renewal. I came close a couple of times to selling a detective series but I would have been horrible at it. Horrible! Because, in fact, after the second or third novel, I know I'd be bored. It would begin to feel like writing outside-in, not inside-out. I wrote freelance journalism for many years, outside-in writing, and it's a good gig but it is not anything like inside-out writing, which is akin to reinventing the wheel with every project because each has its new dynamics and parameters. Inside-out is never boring. It becomes outside-in before it gets boring.

Hence I am very much looking forward to the summer and writing a new novella, the story of the two old farts who revive their 60s folk protest song group. And it's not the story so much as the writing itself that I look forward to, the attempt to find a new and appropriate style in which to tell the story. It's the FORM that fascinates me. To create a form special to the story that tells the story in just the way it needs to be told. Best, I am feeling a bit reckless in this regard, and looking back I find that my most reckless writing has lasted best with me. The Half-Life Conspiracy (link) is my favorite play because it took the most chances, it was the most reckless in the way it was put together -- a play within a play within a play, for example. I found a way to marry politics and relationships. For the same reason, my short stories "The Thing at 34 degrees..." and "Fragments Before the Fall" and "The Man Who Shot Elvis" each found a special form in which to tell the story in the best way, 3 very different narrative approaches.

So I am hoping to be reckless this summer. To just let her rip, so to speak, and to tell what should be a rollicking fun story in a rollicking fun way. We'll see. We'll see. I remain optimistic.