Musings of a Hopeful Author

 Yup, distracted again. BUT I think it's in a good way, haha. I mean, isn't it important to know the type of fancy conveyance being used/referenced in a scene if it's not in the normal run of things? Or is it me procrastinating in a sort of helpful way? I think we all know the answer...  So, first up is the Catalina 315.  "At just under 32 feet, the 315 feels like a much bigger boat. Little touches make significant differences. Take the split backstays for the lofty, double-spreader rig, which open up the space in a cockpit that’s already wide, workable, and ergonomically balanced. Or the extended settee in the main saloon—to starboard, opposite a spacious U-shaped settee, dining table, and galley—which wouldn’t be out of place on a boat 8 feet longer and which maximizes the interior space by doubling as the seat for the aft-facing navigation station."  - Cruising World  (for the full article: https://www.cruisingworld.com/sailboats/boat-review-catalina-315/) I wa

 As I mentioned in the last post, the good idea fairy is both a blessing and a curse. And I have to admit, this latest visit from that fantasy creature has left me at a bit of a loss.  I don't exactly know how I want to move forward. I had a pretty good idea at the outset, but since adding in those improvements I've gotten myself into a bit of dilemma on how to get to the end and have the outcome I want, haha. Guess I'll just have to write through it and see what happens, but so far I've been nervous about putting pen to paper. Just something about writing down the next stages makes them seem like the only path forward even though I know I can always go back and rewrite or just delete it all and start over at this same part. The problem is I can't just erase it from my mind so will I remember things that never happened in the new draft but happened in the last draft? Hopefully it won't come to that, but who knows? Only time and typed pages will tell.

 I'm sure I'm not alone in visits from the good idea fairy, many of which result in horrible ideas that cause us to expend far too much thought and effort in trying to realize the craziness thought up in those visits. And while many of those ideas lead to nothing substantial, there are those rare moments when they yield good ideas that you actually want to do something with. And thus starts the fun... sorta.  I was struck by the good idea fairy a week or so regarding a possible new plot enhancement for the story I'm currently working on and I have to say it checked a lot of boxes and helped neaten up a lot of loose ends I wasn't entirely sure what to do with just yet. BUT it also caused a bit of a dilemma in that it didn't fit the overall flow of the story as I'd envisioned it up until that point. And it also put a line I thought was going to be pretty key to climax of the story in question. So, what do I do? Do I take the net gains of adding in that new plot el

It's a  bit of a joke between a friend of mine and myself regarding my somewhat random obsession over clothing for certain characters or scenes in stories I write. It's not something I get stuck on in every story and it's not for every character or even every scene, but there are those few scenes/moments and those few characters where the clothes really seem to matter to me. Ironically, I don't always describe them in great detail, and rarely (if ever) brand name drop, so the fact that I look up clothes that would be in the character's price range is even more random. But I do it, and I enjoy it.  The first story I really caught myself getting a little more into fashion than I would have expected was my angel story when I was thinking of what one character would wear. I wanted it to be in contrast with the internal makeup of the character I was describing. A bit of devil in disguise or wolf in a sheep's clothing, as it were. And I think seeing those different ou