"A Writer Writes; Always"

The title to this weeks bolg comes from the mantra Billy Chrystal's character ingrained in the minds of his nontraditional creative writing students the in Throw Momma From the Train. I try to write something everyday. I futz with my book. I dabble with the screenplay I'm working on for a friend of mine. I'm constantly revising the movie's outline that's due in March. And then there are the homework assignments. Oh yeah, and every Wednesday there's this blog. And now I must do this ditty for another friend."Must" is in italics because I could blow it off, but I kinda sorta like the challenge.

This time of year is loaded with things that I longingly look forward to doing. I just received my invite from a friend of my son's to enter, for the fourth year, his Bowl Game Challenge. I love it. You assign each bowl a number of importance based on how confident you are of one team defeating the other. The values go from one through however many bowl games there are. I've never won, but the thrill is in the chase as they say.

My Fantasy Football season is coming to a close. For me, it may close a little faster than a couple of other people because I don't see my "team" going very far in the playoffs. Nonetheless it's great fun.

I will do my Christmas cards shortly. I will bake Christmas cookies over the next couple of weeks. And now for the second consecutive year I will enter my friend's Micro-Fiction contest.

Cynn is a published author of five or six books, I can't keep count, she's been rather prolific since I signed up for Facebook. Cynn is also an accomplished carpenter, but decided instead to become a professor at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. In her spare time she paints, mows the North Forty, and is also redoing her basement. Christ, I write "brush my teeth" on my things to do list so I get to cross it off to give me the sense I've accomplished something that day.

Cynn has a rather elaborate Christmas village she's named "Little Bliss." This was the setting for last year's contest as it is for this years. The rules for Cynn's Micro-Fiction contest are simple. Write 250 words in the genre she designates. She even used only 250 words to describe "Little Bliss." Last year the genre was mystery, as in it was a mystery why I ever thought I could write a mystery no matter how many words were involved. This year the genus is romance, as in if writing a mystery was a mystery, it is truly a mystery to think I can write a romance, much less in 250 words. Nevertheless, I will attempt this no matter how futile it seems.

Cynn was even kind enough to include me in a Facebook note to her "writerly friends." Though I remain unpublished, I do fancy myself a writer...just not of mystery or romance.

I have no delusions of grander about winning, it's the challenge. Do I have it in me. If last year's effort is any indication, then no, I don't have it in me. I wrote Cynn that I could be the "comedy" portion of the contest. I think she misunderstood. I'm guessing she's thinking "Oh, a romantic comedy!" What I meant was the writing itself would be comical, screw the theme.

My entry last year was feeble at best. It was formulaic, contrived, and predictable, and I spent a couple of days thinking about what I was going to write. I can't get that time back can I? After I made my submission I read my entry again. I said to myself, "Oh, my god! it's Sergio Leone (the famed director of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns) meets Stephen King on a really off day. After Cynn announced the first and second place winners decided upon by a panel of distinguished judges, I thought I'd read how real mystery writers, or writers that are adaptable, write. I don't know if they really are as deep as the writing seemed, or just artsy-fartsy. Well no matter, their's was good, and mine not so much. But it was fun being challenged like that.

I write creative non-fiction. The stories I tell are true with my spin on it. I can't fabricate much except for maybe a lie, and I haven't told one of those in quite some time. I've probably lost my touch. If I was to tell a lie now it would probably be as transparent as that piece I wrote for last year's Micro-Fiction contest.

The deadline for entries is December 10th. I thought we had more time last year from announcement to deadline, but maybe I just thought there was more time because I was unemployed. Time moves p-r-e-t-t-y slow when you have a lot of nothing happening career wise. This year I'm very busy. As a matter of fact, when I'm done here I'm taking a final exam. The last piece of classwork concluding my first semester as a doctoral candidate. That will give me tomorrow and Friday to come up with 250 scintillating quixotic words. I think I'd rather take another final in something I know more about than romance, like genetic micro-biology.

Time is of the essence, I must get to work. That's why I'm cutting this short. I need to think of something... but by the time I do the contest will be over.