Road to Happy
Posted: October 11, 2011 Filed under: Joined at the Heart, Mouths of Babes, Writers Write | Tags: Albert Brooks, Dancing With the Stars, family, Happiness, violin, writers, writing 1 Comment »
“What’s your happy road, Daddy?” Dancing With the Stars went to commercial, and my ten-year-old daughter hit mute on the remote.
“What?” Bacon’s head was in the latest Albert Brooks’ novel.
“Your happy road,” she said.
“What’s that? I asked.
“The thing that makes you happy.” She closed her decorated composition book. Coco makes notes on the couples’ performances and judges’ evaluations on DWTS. I figured the comment had something to do with movie theme night on the reality show.
“Did you think that up or hear it somewhere?”
“Made it up.” She looked at her dad again. “Mine’s the violin. If I’m sad, I play, and I feel better.”
Bacon said, “You, your sister, and your mom are my happy road. You make me laugh.”
Satisfied, she opened her book again. The commercial break was over.
Redux: Day 8
Posted: November 17, 2008 Filed under: Dirty Dozen, Writers Write | Tags: antique roses, Dancing With the Stars, writers, writing Leave a comment »I fixed yesterday’s problem by adding half a page where the heroine confirms to the other characters exactly what she’s been thinking. The reader has it figured out already, but the hero hasn’t. When he does, he gets mad.
I took some time off today to look around at Antique Rose Emporium. I go every few months, just to look around. Today, the musk roses were blooming, and they smelled wonderful.
Dancing With the Stars is on. That buys me more writing time this evening. I’ll never get the girls to bed tonight. When I do, Cherry and Coco will be jitterbugging in their sleep.
Later: Coco called it the jigglebug.
Dirty Dozen Redux–Day 1
Posted: November 10, 2008 Filed under: Dirty Dozen, Mouths of Babes, Writers Write | Tags: Dancing With the Stars, writers, writing Leave a comment »It’s 9:00 p.m. I’ve been writing for most of the last 12 hours. Here are notes on the day:
- My original 10 pages became 16 in today’s rewrite. I added a scene from scratch.
- The hardest thing is the most obvious. It’s really hard to write all day. My brain is mush.
- Cooking dinner, I was so distracted that I put a teaspoon of cinnamon instead of cumin in the chili. My family ate it anyway.
- During Dancing With the Stars, Coco ran in after every performance with scores. She didn’t want me to miss anything.
