Richard I. Levine
When I write, I am writing to create and to entertain myself. For me, that is the foundation that helps unleash my imagination. Also, knowing that I can change anything during the process allows me to explore with reckless abandon. Nothing is off limits. So, when I sit at the computer I have no expectations other than to continue the journey that I started. Let the detours come. That's what makes this fun. Some nights I write a sentence. Some nights I write a paragraph, some nights, I write several pages. Sometimes I reread pages of dialogue that I wrote the night before and because I was so deep in a zone, It was as if the characters themselves took control of the story. And then there are some nights there's nothing traveling from the deep recesses of my mind through the nerve pathways that make my finger tips dance across the keyboard. I accept whatever is available to me that particular night as a gift and celebrate the new addition with the knowledge that it can always be added to, edited, or deleted just the same. Since I write for my own entertainment, if there is little or nothing on any given night, I don't force the issue. At the risk of sounding arrogant and/or ignorant, I have never understood those who say they suffer for their art. Except for a contractual obligation with time constraints, I have never understood why someone would mentally torture themselves by staring at a blank piece of paper or a computer monitor for hours/days on end. To me, creating has always been my escape, my entertainment, and my pleasure. I'm not going to treat it any other way.
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