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The plot thickens | page 1, 2, 3
I'm a lawyer, and recently I've rediscovered an old love, fiction
writing, and I'm toying with fragments that might make a good
novel. Once I sit down and start writing, the words flow with great
ease. I can draft six pages of my novel in about two hours,
though I always tinker with it afterward. Because it comes to
me so easily, I'm certain it must be truly awful stuff. My
friends and family who read my work say nice things but then they
love me. I'm sure I must truly be terrible and this makes it very
difficult for me to proceed. I'm losing the battle to
get myself to the keyboard. Months will go by without so much as
a journal entry. Yet I have a tremendous desire to turn my
talents to something besides law, of which I grow weary. And I
am very happy when I'm actually writing. How can I gain the
confidence I need to tap away more often? Cinderella Dear Cinderella, Confidence is an elusive goal for a writer. I
don't know many writers who have attained it. I haven't.
Confidence comes, if it comes at all, from the material you're
dealing with. I've never felt confident writing about myself, but
have felt very bold putting forward the lives and thoughts of
other people. You are suffering the tremors of a true writer.
Don't ignore the feeling, don't obey the feeling. Just forge
ahead. Dear Mr. Blue, After reading your columns I believe I am more fortunate than
most. I am 89 years old. Excellent health. More assets than I will
ever need, many good friends. Can find no fault with children,
grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Had a good marriage for 53
years. Traveled everywhere in the world that we wanted to go.
Still find life very good. You needn't
answer, just wanted you to know there are some without problems. Grandma Bess Dear Grandma Bess, There's a fly in the ointment somewhere and if
you sit down and think about it, you'll find it, and if you
ponder it for a while, you can work yourself up into a lather and
then write back and Mr. Blue will address it. Start with those
grandchildren. Isn't there at least one bad apple in that barrel?
I'm sure there is. And be glad for it. It's the children with
problems whom you love the most. Dear Mr. Blue, My boyfriend and I, both 28, have been together seven years.
People were surprised when we became a couple. I'm sort of a free
spirit, he's very cautious. I had hoped he'd learn to relax and enjoy life more. But it
hasn't happened that way. I find myself curbing my exuberance and
becoming more like him. We've been having the same argument for
too long. I can't bear to spend the rest of my life fighting a
losing battle. His job sent him abroad for a month. He was miserable. I was sad
to see my time alone end when he came home. He's a good man; I often feel he deserves to be with someone
better than me. His greatest fear is that I will one day leave
him. He wants to get married but knows I will say no. He
believes we were meant to be together. I used to hope that he was
right. Recently, I have become attracted to another good man who I'm
sure reciprocates the interest. I think about him constantly and
imagine what a relationship with him would be like. It's the high
point of my week to see him for a couple of hours. If he were to
ask me to run away with him, I think I'd leave in a moment. He's
shined a great big light on what I've been trying to ignore about
my current relationship. Can you tell me what it is I'm feeling
for this acquaintance? Do my boyfriend and I still have anything
worth fighting for? How do I know if it's time to move on? Should
I move on? Feeling like a soap opera Dear Feeling, It's hard to do what you've got to do, kid, but
when your boyfriend came home after a month away and you felt bad
to see him, that's not right, and you can't make it right. You're
living with him out of habit. Your being a free spirit and his
being cautious isn't the issue: It's that feeling in the pit of
your stomach that you can't ignore. My advice is to stop arguing
and start bringing this old relationship to a decent and civil
end. Don't use the new guy as a lever; square things with the
boyfriend yourself. Maybe you could write him a letter and give
it to him and let him read it in your presence and then sit and
hold your hand and talk, and you can tell him just what you told
me, except do tell him about the good times too. It's painful to
be dumped by your lover; it's too painful by far to stick with
someone whose homecoming you don't look forward to. Dear Mr. Blue, I carved out a slice from Chapter One of my book
(autobiographical fiction) and shipped it to two major journals. It
is some of my best writing and has won an award for outstanding
writing, and part has already been published by a literary mag.
Alas, both journals rejected the work. Help. My confidence is
flagging. Florida Cracker Dear Cracker, The fact that two impotent, alcoholic editors of
two cheesy rags turned down your work is of no moment, like being
attacked by houseflies. I don't know who the two are, but I do
know that they're limp reeds in literature, pitiful hulks of
intellects ravaged by too many martinis and prime-rib dinners,
and you should take those rejection slips and put them on the
back of your toilet and think about them as you pass water. Don't
be discouraged by rejection by pygmies like them, be honored.
Courage. Sail on. Dear Mr. Blue, My live-in boyfriend and I have a problem: holidays. We've always
each spent holidays with our own families, but last year, after
three years of dating, I went to his parents' home in
Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. This year, my family is having a
reunion in Florida for Christmas, and my boyfriend was invited
to attend. At first he was hesitant, thinking his mother wouldn't
understand, but then he agreed to spend T-day
with his family and Xmas with mine. Now, with the tickets bought, he is
still prickly about the Christmas trip and says his mom will be
sadder without him than I will be happy with him. I think it's
unfair of him to pit his mother's emotional needs against mine;
what should we do? Confused in NYC Dear Confused, What you should do is not have this argument. It's
like crossing a minefield to capture a hill you don't even want.
You lose a leg and bleed all over the ground, and for a prize you
get to spend Christmas with a morose person. If he wants to spend
Christmas with his mom, let him cash in his ticket. You go to
Florida. He's a big boy, he can decide what to do.
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