Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Roadblocks and Brainlocks

Alright, it's the moment of truth....and now I have The Karate Kid stuck in my head. Part of my "MO" is working on a project for awhile and then moving on to something else, leaving the original project to become a distant memory. Usually, it's because I come up with some other amazing idea, at least I think so and I jump ship. Sometimes though it's because I get to a point where I'm unsure of where to go next or the task becomes too daunting in my head.

Currently, I'm unsure where to go. I haven't been able to write for the past two weeks because I had to finish up the two winter bowling leagues I run. I had to reconcile all the money collected and what was paid to the house and then divvy up the profits between 110 bowlers over two leagues. All told, I split up $21,000 between the 110 bowlers. Needless to say I spent a lot of time doing this. Thankfully, I'm now done until September. I've been voted to be the secretary in both leagues again.

So, it's been two weeks since I've written and yesterday I sat down and got started. I finished the one chapter I had been working on and then....yeah. So I sat there for a little bit trying to decide where to go and after 10 minutes I put the computer down and cleared a little space on my DVR. I watched the latest episode of NCIS and was actually tickled because something I do when watching some of these procedurals was actually written into this script....I thought it was cool. Sometimes I'm watching L&O or CSI or something and the cops are chasing a perp and I go into the voice of the cop and say, "why are you running? You know I'm in better shape then you, I'm faster than you and I'm going to catch you." or "do you really think you can outrun me?" It was a flashback to when Dinozzo was with the Baltimore PD and he did those exact things. He was yelling at a perp that he played college basketball and he had nowhere to run. Anyway, I found it cool...but I should get back to my story.

So the book I'm writing is called The Trinity Murders and it's about a recently fired FBI profiler, Topper McMullen, who gets called by the Dallas PD to help out on a case. The sergeant thinks there is a connection among 32 victims across three states but hasn't been able to get any support, until he calls Topper. I'm at a point where I want to introduce a new character who will be integral to the story but I'm struggling with how to introduce him and who he's going to be, I have options. I am planning Topper to be a running series of his stories and I already have the premise for the second one and how it will begin. So when I got stuck last night, I started thinking about the second one...a true Jeff "MO".

So this is the moment of truth, hopefully a positive step in my maturation. When I get home this afternoon, well first I'm going to watch the end of the A's day baseball game....I'm only human. Then I'm going to close off all distractions and try to work through this portion of my story...both my story and Topper's story and hopefully come out stronger on the other side.