Getting Focused

I am quickly learning that one of the hardest things for a writer to do is to get and maintain focus.  I feel as if sometimes I have my "Look! There's a Chicken!" moments... well, more than sometimes.

My affliction was brought into better focus this morning when I recieved an e-mail from my friend and editor, Karen Shor up in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Now, I haven't read the whole thing (which I promise I'll do when I finish this blog), but what hit me was that I had given her the first few lines of a story I had started to write on and which I go back to every once in a while.

The working title of the story is Mayor of Middleburg.  It's set in a small Texas town where no one has dared to challenge the mayor for re-election since anyone can remember.  The hero in the story is goaded into running against this "Mayor for Life" by a same-sex couple who merely want city water and sewer run up to their house just inside of city limits.

Anyhoo, I got a running start on that story some months back, but put it on the back burner for a variety of reasons.  Too many other distractions.

To date, I have several other stories I'm working on:

* The Magnolia Chronicles - A story about the arrival of a new pastor and his family in town.
* Return to Magnolia - Literally a chase, involving Glenn Michaels' son and a late night visitor.
* Short Stories - With Disclaimers - Putting some previously written short stories in a collection
* Whatever Happened to Suddsy Watters - Explained in a previous post.
* The Pecking Order - Small town expectations and what happens when someone exceeds their bounds.
* An untitled Murder Mystery - With a comic twist, no less.
* Geoffrey - A ghost story about a mischevious ghost living in an old house.

The last couple of nights I have been working diligently on The Magnolia Chronicles.  Most of the story has already been written... all I need to do is to assemble the pieces and 'comb through' to eliminate any mistakes I may have made in the continuity of the overall story.

I'm making good progress.  I have assembled about a third of the overall story, have another third ready to be installed, and have about a third which still needs to be written in order to tie all of the other elements together.

But I have come to the conclusion that I need to concentrate on getting those elements together.  At the same time, I need to see about getting a 'day job' as well as working around the house (fixing plumbing woes at the moment) and paying attention to the fact that this is "Holy Week".

I thought that losing a job would leave me with lots of idle time.  Boy, was I wrong.  All I really need to do is to focus, focus, focus.

Damn!  There goes a squirrel!

Be Seeing You!

bdharrell