Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming ...

Books aren't written, they're rewritten. ~ Michael Crichton

There is no great writing, only great rewriting. ~ Justice Brandeis

Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. 

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


So, what do a fish named Dori and these three famous fellows have in common? They're all telling me to stop getting bogged down in the muck of my writing; they're sick of me drowning in my own less-than-perfect writing and not finishing anything.


I've been writing, writing, writing for several years now, but I have yet to accomplish the greater art Longfellow refers to. So I'm taking Chrichton and Brandeis's advice in one hand and Dori's words of encouragement in the other, and--armed with them both--I'm going to become that "greater artist" Longfellow mentions ... the one who actually finishes.

First Post

It's March the first and I'm on my way.


New goals; new resolve; new blog.


This'll be the record of my journey, the e-pebbles dropped along the unfamiliar but exciting path to the gingerbread house of my dreams.


But this ain't no yellow brick road, Toto.


In fact, it looks a whole lot more like the one that diverged in the yellow wood. And Frost and Dickens and Tolkien and Lewis and Shakespeare and the rest are all calling to me from somewhere around the bend.


Feel free to come along with me as I chase after them. I'll be following a bit of advice from one of those who traveled his own yellowed road a long time back. He's up there right now playing with the rest of them, but he kindly left some directions for those of us coming after. They're written on a piece of paper that looks like it's been chewed by very large dogs, but you can still just make out the writing ...

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." ~ Jack London

(yep, that's him there on the right, looking like he's about to club someone in addition to inspiration if they don't get the camera out of his face)


So here I go. Join me if you'd like. It's bound to be an adventure. And why wouldn't it be? 

After all, I'm off to club my muse!