Skip the boring parts, advised Elmore Leonard. The boring parts--like an author's bio, for example. Yet, here you are. So the least I can do is to make up my mind and write down something.
I write. I rewrite. Sometimes I move words around, as if I hoped for the perfect turn of phrase to magically appear and save my day. It never does.
There was a time I believed that revising meant I wasn’t any good. That’s no longer the case. Anyway, though enjoyable, revising isn’t at all a straightforward process. Not for me at least.
Usually, my first drafts are nothing more than bare-bones synopses of the stories I want to write. Then revision after revision I see my stories grow bigger and bigger. Usually I let my hands rush all over the keyboard and pound into existence whatever they want to.
However, later on, when I have to clean up a particularly difficult passage, I often end up finding out that the best solution has to do with cutting, paring down. Luckily, words aren't trees, and I can chop down an entire metaphorical forest even if while doing so I'm crying for the fate of my wonderful creations.
Indeed, at times I fall in love with what I write-well, most of the times. In such cases my fiancee, who is way wiser than me, usually shakes her head and with a smile sends me back to my study. But she does so with such a grace that I end up believing I myself have decided to go through one more revision.
Well, more or less, that's all. Ah...I almost forgot. I'm also an omnivorous reader, a runner, a hiker, computer gamer, and a coffee addict. Hiking and reading get most of my coffee-powered attention. Instead to video games I allot a very small portion of time. Indeed, especially with role playing games, I constantly run the risk of falling off this side of the universe. Anyway, writing is already an activity immersive enough in its own right.
So long, and thanks for reading.
Peter.
