this staying home has become a habit, though we take our kids to town every once in a while, sometimes every day for a while. at home i'm plenty busy. i've decided to write everything i've ever wanted to write, and just plug away until i've said everything i've ever wanted to say. there's plenty left; there are at least five or six unfinished books on my desktop. i started a novel finally, about iowa. and since i always loved iowa, it's kind of a love story. but i get to throw in everything i always loved about iowa - and there is a lot! particularly iowa city - one of my favorite cities ever.
but to be specific about it, what's favorite about it is the way it was in 1975, so that's where i'm setting the novel. iowa city, 1975. i don't really like what it's become, or even especially what it became while i was still there. there was this tiny little time while i was there that i really liked, and that's what i'm writing about.
the good thing about novels is the kind of choice you have going in. you can have any plot, any characters, any setting, any time. it's a lot of power.
but you have to have a goal going in. a lot of times i go in, and i have things i want to say, but i don't have a complete picture. i have two unfinished novels just sitting there. and i've been determined to finish them, before i start this iowa one. but the iowa one i just started anyway. i figure, with the coronavirus and all, you have to just say it all, while you have the chance. get it all out there. tell the world. you might be on a ventilator tomorrow.
it's a little mixed up with my autobiography, which is also very heavily leaning on iowa. so much of my growing up happened there, and i did so much. with this novel i can make the vast majority of it true. i just have to make an overlying plot, a reason for the reader to keep turning the pages. and there weren't any major scandals at that time - big murders, or financial scams, whatever. i end up making the story much more nuanced, a real picture of real people, all with different names. to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent.
you might ask about my relatives - the settlement of the territory of nebraska and all that. well they're still there, and i have to print that one, and read it, and finish it, but basically i got so far on the civil war, and i kind of wore it out. i had to come up for air. i had to do the seventies, my own seventies, to remember who i am.
more later, things are happening here, even as the clock turns, and we go into july.
but to be specific about it, what's favorite about it is the way it was in 1975, so that's where i'm setting the novel. iowa city, 1975. i don't really like what it's become, or even especially what it became while i was still there. there was this tiny little time while i was there that i really liked, and that's what i'm writing about.
the good thing about novels is the kind of choice you have going in. you can have any plot, any characters, any setting, any time. it's a lot of power.
but you have to have a goal going in. a lot of times i go in, and i have things i want to say, but i don't have a complete picture. i have two unfinished novels just sitting there. and i've been determined to finish them, before i start this iowa one. but the iowa one i just started anyway. i figure, with the coronavirus and all, you have to just say it all, while you have the chance. get it all out there. tell the world. you might be on a ventilator tomorrow.
it's a little mixed up with my autobiography, which is also very heavily leaning on iowa. so much of my growing up happened there, and i did so much. with this novel i can make the vast majority of it true. i just have to make an overlying plot, a reason for the reader to keep turning the pages. and there weren't any major scandals at that time - big murders, or financial scams, whatever. i end up making the story much more nuanced, a real picture of real people, all with different names. to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent.
you might ask about my relatives - the settlement of the territory of nebraska and all that. well they're still there, and i have to print that one, and read it, and finish it, but basically i got so far on the civil war, and i kind of wore it out. i had to come up for air. i had to do the seventies, my own seventies, to remember who i am.
more later, things are happening here, even as the clock turns, and we go into july.
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l3vdKF8V38A/Wkf3O_GLwZI/AAAAAAAAAXw/wRHP_HkqHCYwyGrGy6DensrymKfgRA70wCLcBGAs/s1600/georgepop.jpg")
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home