Novelty

With the beginning of the Summer, I've had some time off of work and I've been doing my best to try and relax after such a long year. As you can probably imagine, my mind hasn't taken many breaks. It's been a lot of think, think, think these past couple of weeks, with not a lot of "do" mixed in there. I could probably come up with a reason for that, but honestly, why continue to think about it? It's time to do.

If you're close to me, you know I love to write. I think about it every day...about having novels published, trying screenwriting, and making a living by doing one of these. Yet, my half-hearted pursuit of these things has proven a disappointment. I though that once my busy year at work was over, I'd jump right at any opportunity to continue things I've started, like the novel I'm trying my hand at and the TV pilot I've started. I haven't. My focus hasn't been there. In fact, it seems like it's been everywhere else. Regardless, no more excuses. I'm going to go after this. I owe it to myself.

In that spirit, I woke up this morning, made my cup of coffee, watched a bit of "First Take" to check in on the NBA's free agent market (aka The Lebron James Show), and got on the computer...hoping for some inspiration. I opened up some documents from a flash drive...

When I was a senior at UConn, which seems like decades ago, I made an attempt at beginning a novel. Anyways, I first opened up this document, which is something I haven't really looked at in awhile. I never got far with it because of everything else going on with school, and I never did more with it. I looked at it today for what it was...a look into where I was over two years ago, creatively, and maybe mentally. There were two excerpts that I remembered writing, even where I was when I wrote them. I also remembered being pretty pleased with them:

"He sometimes wished his life was one of those cleverly crafted, teenage TV dramas; the ones where the almost impossible amount of conflict and struggle were packed into every minute of every episode, yet so contrived that it could make controversy seem appealing: almost perfect.

The shy, moral kid becomes the school’s star athlete and gets the girl. The amazingly artistic and troubled adolescent goes unnoticed until finally achieving his or her dream. The unexpected hero saves a life. The early death of a loved one devastates a soul, but brings a new perspective…

But life isn't like that. Problems aren't neatly cleaned up in forty-two minutes."

There was also this part, which seemed to speak to me now:

"Close your eyes and you’ll find that all it takes is a moment away from your surroundings to realize that your environment is not a permanent fixture in your life. Finality becomes obsolete and you learn that escape is possible. The difficulty is in opening your eyes and facing this truth."

Not to sound weird, but I was actually pretty impressed looking back at this stuff. I think I'm a pretty good writer. It's always been something that is really important to me. I love it and I want to be better at it. I opened up another novel that I started last summer, but didn't work on this entire year because of work. This one, I feel, has some promise. I've talked to people about it and they really loved the premise...or they didn't want to hurt my feelings...one or the other. Regardless, I have to write it.

These blogs are good practice. While writing this one, an old friend of mine just told me she read the previous post, and she told me that I'm a good writer. Being complimented on something you're passionate about is one of the best feelings in the world. My sister always tells me the same thing. One of my best friends said the same thing to me when a bunch of us were out on my deck just hanging out about a year ago. Someone suggested that we all go around the table we were sitting at and say something nice about the person next to us. It was extremely cheesy, but we had a funny time with it. He said that I was a really good writer, and it meant so much to me. I don't know if he'd even remember it. It really meant a lot.

Well, I have stuff to look forward to, so I'm going to focus on those things and hope that all goes well. I have a pretty good feeling about stuff lately. We'll see...

- Daley