art of writing is improving. Writing can always be improved. Trust me on this – I look at old blogs and short stories I’ve written and see where things can get better.

So I’m at a break in Tubitz and Mergenstein. I’ve got the third section done and am gathering myself for the fourth. I’ve got other projects I’m attending to (trains, stars, work, reading, everything). But I’ll get back to it.

This morning I found myself in Juniors, our little round-the-corner diner where my wife and I read through our brunch and chat about our stories on the way home. I’m working through JJ Amaworo Wilson’s Damnificado, a fictionalization of an abandoned tower in South America that gets taken over by the homeless, the drunks, the bums and drifters (i.e. the people of the title) and how they hold it against the government and defaulted property claimants.

In one bit, the hero finds himself on a trek into the wilderness, seeking a person who will solve all their problems. As he crosses the plains, as things look grimmer and grimmer still, he sees where “a wake of buzzards circle in the air”.

This is that “truth” I’m always going on about, the point where writing shines so brightly it blinds. That’s a perfect way to resonating with what a column of carrion birds means, that they are in attendance for some wilderness death, simply and perfectly put. I just smiled around that one. So right. So smooth.

And it made me think of my own story. Yes, I’ve read it through once or twice and smoothed it each time. But I have not looked for places where the writing has stalled, where a little thing like this might make it all the better. Great writing inspires the same, I guess. So after I’m all done, I’ll make a pass looking for just such places where truth can set the story free and allow it to fly.

>>>WAS MY WRITING SUCKY BEFORE ALL THIS? YOU BE THE JUDGE. BUY ONE (OR ALL) OF MY BOOKS AND FIND OUT!<<<