The Center Track – 0001

January 30, 2014

Today I begin this new blog series.  My day job recently changed and with that so to did my commuting.  Now instead of driving in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour each way to work, I now comfortably ride a commuter train.  More often than not I’m able to catch a train that is, in some way an express line to and from work.  When the train is ‘expressing’ it rides the center track, leaving the tracks on either side open for the local trains that stop at the stations mine bypasses.

The idea for this series is due in no small part to my friend and mentor, Tee Morris’ “Stranger on a Train” series and it is in that light that I now write.  Posts in “The Center Track” will be composed while on the train, they will be stream of thought, and they will be posted almost immediately after  writing them.  (or as soon as I can get the iPad to a WiFi Connection).  *Authors note Feb, 1 – This one is obviously delayed.* They will also be infrequent, though other blog posts will fill in those gaps, as this series fills in gaps for others.

Today I’m running late.  This is, of course, not ideal, but taking the later train into work has allowed me to experience the morning sunrise- something I haven’t seen or enjoyed in earnest in quite some time.  That’s the down side of the 6:00 AM commute in the midwestern winter.  It seems fitting in a way that is both highly cliche and some how proper, in my romanticized view of the world, fitting that I experience this today, because today is yet another new beginning.  

I will be scrapping Hunter and re-starting it for what I believe is the 6th time.

Writing this manuscript has been a slog, of that there’s no doubt.  But sometime earlier this week, as I was putting words down on the train I realized what was was wrong with the manuscript in it’s current form.  It wasn’t the setting nor was it the plot.  It wasn’t the characters nor was it the action.  It was the perspectivce.  The characters were simply on the wrong side.  I won’t go into a lot of detail on that, but when I realized that my characters needed a change in vocation in order to make this work properly, more pieces fell into place.  Yesterday after an impromptu brainstorm session with a friend and fellow author, more pieces fell into place and I realized that the book would need a new outline. 

I am okay with this.  Yes, it is a setback, but as I brainstorm the new details, the larger picture crystalizes in my head in a way I have yet to experience with this manuscript and as I start re-working things, I have vowed to myself that this will be the final time I re-start this manuscript.

Serously.  This is it.  

I need to either finish this project or move on.  I’m six attempts at a first draft into it, and if I can’t make it work this time, I’m going to drawer the concept and revisit it at a later date.  

I confess it’s a little frustrating to have to throw out potentially all of the 50,000 words I’ve written and start from scratch.  Sure some scenes will be salvagable and some will not.  But sometimes, this is the way the process works.  I’ve been very lucky to put together five manuscripts that have been relatively easy to do.  (coming soon!)  I suppose it’s okay that my sixth one is a highly stubborn piece.  I know two colleagues off the top of my head who are or were in similiar situations with one of their works in process.  So I know I”m in good company.  Sometimes this is the way it goes.  

So, as the train pulls in to the station, I’m looking at this as a challenge.  

Lets see if I can finally get this right.