So here we are–a few weeks later already since the last post. My, how time does fly! It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been on my NYC trip and back–in a way, I feel like I never went, except that I have very vivid images of Central Park, Times Square, several subway stations, Katz’s, the lobby of the Empire State Building, a zillion amazing buildings, the World Trade Center Memorial, the Highline, and numerous other places and exclusive-to-NYC things engrained in my memory. It was an amazing and impressionable trip, needless to say.
I wish I could report that I spent my train ride there and back working madly on my writing. As it turns out, I am so removed from being in a super comfortable and ready mental space to write, that I spent nearly the entire time (both ways) just staring out of the window. I needed that, believe me! In fact, I could probably spend a good lot of time on a train before reaching a point where I could bear to look down at paper and make words magically appear at the end of my pen…
That said, I was able to gather up some details that I need in order to write one of my stories (probably a short one, or novella at best), and now I just need the right energy to help me jump right into the actual writing part of it. For another story–and possibly screenplay, since I can’t make up my mind which one it will become in the end–I was able to get some of what I wanted as far as setting, but I’m not yet convinced that NYC is where it will take place. I think I will need another visit so I can explore a few little things–little, but extremely pertinent to the story in my head.
It bears mentioning that while I was in NYC, I saw more than one park, square, street, storefront, or walkway that looked identical to something of its same ilk elsewhere–as in, another city. Madison Square Garden reminds me a lot of a section of Boston. Some of the streets were oddly reminiscent of Florence, Italy. At one point, I almost felt like I had stumbled onto a street in Pioneer Square in Seattle, WA. Why is this? Is this a perception limited to my reality? Just as I may see a person’s face differently than someone standing next to me who is also looking at that person–do I see streets or squares from one place to the next and something in my brain immediately finds similar patterns, and therefore interprets the new location to look like the old one? Matrix, indeed! The same could easily be said for people–why is it that we see the doppelgänger of someone we know well, but on the other side of the country or in a photograph, and yet there is no relation (biological or otherwise) between them? I really came across this a lot while I was there–both with places and faces. And speaking of familiar faces: in case I didn’t mention this back in February, I ran into someone at Farpoint who looked like he stepped out of Captain Hauke: The Case of Leslie F. Hunt, with Captain Hauke’s nametag on. He was exactly what I had imagined of the character, right down to being left-handed, an artist, and wearing Aya’s Greek fisherman’s hat. It was bizarre, truly. It left me thinking–did he step out of the book? Or did I fall into some kind of parallel universe to it and there he was? Always a weirdness. Always. But a treat that is hard to top, that is for sure!
So, writing: the 2 NYC-based tales have gotten a few bits and pieces added here and there. A new “thriller” short is in the works. I’m trying to keep it focused to about 2000 words, and am just trying to come up with content at the moment. It goes back to a daily occurrence about a year ago, of which a former coworker will appreciate once it’s finished. Part two of As Fate… got a few more bits added to it. That might be it for a moment. Next week, I have a final and the week after, and then the semester is over. Otherwise, I feel like it’s been quiz, test, quiz, test for the last four weeks (because it has!). I’m looking forward to getting a little of my time back for focusing on my writing! We’ll see how that goes with needing to pick up more hours for work.
Balance, balance, balance…Or so they say…