Detour

Because I have actually fallen out of the groove of working on the book project since I've come to Seattle, i have decided to allow myself a bit of a writing detour. I am working on a few fiction things that I've neglected for some time, one of them a short story that I am excited about. It will be a dystopian tale set in the not-too-distant future centering on the story of a boy trapped inexorably in the mire of a military-industrial complex that makes our present-day complex look like the set of Bambi.

Poking around the net for some inspiration, I stumbled upon a short article written by one of my favorite writers, Chuck Palahniuk. Chuck is the author of, among other things, Fight Club and lives just a few hours away from Seattle, apparently. Some years ago, he wrote a helpful little piece entitled "13 Writing Tips"which contains this little nugget:

"Life is too precious to spend it writing tame, conventional stories to which you have no personal attachment."

To all of us who endeavor to write, perhaps even for a living, whether our writing be fiction or nonfiction, poetry or journalism, this is a maxim we should revere and hold as true. Our lives are indeed too precious to be finicky, nervous, and weak about our writing. Boldness is the order of the day. Let's go!