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1�0�1�0�1�0�1�0�0�1 2003-09-04, 4:05 p.m.

the needle returns to the start of the song


I really must update here more often.

In the week that I've been avoiding updating, I have done the following things:

  1. Battled an honest-to-God bout of depression; not even cookies and a good book can shake my blues.

  2. Written a lot, then screeched to a halt over the Labor Day weekend and did nothing.

  3. Ate loads of unhealthy food, including hamburgers, steak, a peach turnover, a bacon and cheese omelette (I know ... I can hardly believe it myself), macaroni and cheese (a few nights in a row), hot dogs, potato chips, and pizza. Good Lord, it's a wonder I'm not dead or 300 pounds.

  4. Suffered some major ego-pricks and disappointments with some projects I've been working on for the past several months.

  5. Realized some major accomplishments with projects I've been working on for the past several months.

  6. Written lots of reviews for Zoetrope studio story submissions.

On the final point, I'm very surprised at my low, low tolerance for well-written stories in which nothing happens. I used to love Raymond Carver (after which, I would venture to guess, all these aspiring writers model their style), but even in Raymond Carver stories something really did happen, even if it was subtle. What I'm finding in the stories by Zoetrope community members is that the character development is superb, the premise excellent, the language spot-on, but at the end the story fizzles and barely even pops. Full-blooded, complex characters move through their days without changing or growing; at the end, there is a misunderstanding or something that serves as the climax and then the story is over. Maybe I'm not craving action as much as I am discovery. It doesn't need to be a Hollywood movie script to move me. What is it that's missing, then? I'm trying to verbalize it in my reviews but am dancing around it more than anything.



before � after