More weird coincidences to prove the world is smaller than you think.

John Kruk and Chris Rose, from the Fox Sports show "The Best Damn Sport Show Period", are subbing for Jim Rome on his radio show. I tried watching their show, but wasn't that impressed with it. Chris and John together however, are quite funny.

Anyway, John Kruk was born in Charleston, West Virginia. There's that West Virginia connection thing going again. Chris Rose when to Miami University in Ohio. Paul, the exboyfriend who died in May, went to Miami University too.

I wonder if this means I need to give that sports show another chance. Chris and John do the guy talk thing, and they're very funny.

My horoscope for the week from a favorite astrology website. It sounds like good things are supposed to be happening to me. I hope so. I was little down yesterday when I started thinking about my writing. I think writing is my life purpose. I was even told by that spiritual medical intuitive, who I was seeing for health problems, that writing is my life purpose. But I don't know. Some aspects of writing are so easy for. Other aspects like grammar are hard, difficult, horrific, an assault on my psyche sometimes, only because I feel that I have zero ability in grammar. Okay, I know that's not completely true. I think I write in complete sentences most of the times. But God, the gap between where I am, and where I think I need to be seems gigundous! Gigundous, such a strange word isn't it? I have a website linked at home that's called gigundous.

Stephen King said, in his book on writing, that the level of writing is like a pyramid. There are few people at the top, like James Joyce and Aldous Huxley, then there are few people at the bottom, like maybe genre writers like Danielle Steele, and then everybody else is is the middle. The big middle.

I definitely know at this point, I'm not at the top of the pyramid. I'm not trying to invent a new way of writing. I'm not trying to push the limits of language, tradition and convention. I don't even has aspirations to be a scholarly writer, or write what a friend of mine would call, "high brow" books.

I guess my dilemma is I don't know if I'm even I make the bottom part of the pyramid. God, I wouldn't mind writing books like Danielle Steele. Her books are great for reading at the beach and on the trips. It's all too depressing to think about right now.

I think I'm at the point in any process, where you don't see any progress happening. You know progress is happening, but you don't see it. Instead, the only thing you're aware of is the gap between where you are and where you would like to be.

I have to remember that just because I don't see any progress, it doesn't mean that I'm not moving forward. That a day will come when I'll feel like I took a huge leap forward, that I just skipped a bunch of steps, that I made evolutionary progress. But the truth is I didn't skip steps and I didn't make evolutionary progress. My progress was slow and steady; I just wasn't aware of it most of the time. I hope I'm at this point that progress is happening, and that I'm not just now aware of it.

AQUARIUS
August 29-September 4
© 2002 Linda Rankin

Forecast
With Mars making a sign change to get this week rolling expect to find new outlets for your ambitions, new ways to act out your ideals and a more compelling focus on passion to greet you, Aquarius. In that ever-wonderous way the universe works this steady, diligent, decidedly intellectual new tone Mars wears suits your own desires and passions perfectly. Think about it....think some more...than do it.

Consider where a life dream has changed. Consider how you have changed. Consider how the outer components of your world have changed and where necessary rewrite those dreams. An adjustment may be called for and is worth any effort you put into reworking ideals that need reworking. A passionate focus on your truth grows in intensity as the days go along. Ask yourself...how clearly you are living your truths.

Falling in love or like or lust. Finding a fascinating new possibility or person or idea to become enchanted with are all possible as Venus trines your own ruling planet...Uranus later in the week. Unusually objectives might lead to changing plans. A new friendship could be born in your world. A new mission could surface. Keep your eyes open...and stay flexible.

I have Chopin's Preludes playing right now. I love Chopin. I am in a classical music mood tonight, and will listen to Debussy's Etudes next, then maybe some Beethoven or Mozart. Or, for something completely different, Bryn Terfel's "The Welsh Album". I heard him sing in a Stravinsky opera in 2000, and really liked his voice. Then later before I go to bed, I'll listen to one of my favorite pieces, Chopin's Nocturnes. It's perfect music to listen to late at night.

I was craving junk food this evening, so I went to Burger King. I had a whopper jr without mayo, fries and onion rings. I feel completely stuffed now. I should have just had either fries or onion rings but not both.

I'm bad. In my Palm, I have a list of what I can eat all the fast food restaurants. It's not like I even eat at fast food restaurants all the time either; I probably have a craving for fast food about four times a year. I just needed to know that I could eat at a fast food restaurant if I wanted to. It makes me feel psychologically, that I'm not on any kind of restrictive starvation diet. Never mind that I'm eating 1,000 calories less than I should be eating if I wanted to stay at my current weight, which means that for all practical purposes I am on calorie restrive diet. It's the psychology that counts.

The music stopped, so I put on Debussy's Etudes. All this piano music. I'll put on Muzio Clementi next. Seeing his headstone at Westminister Abbey in London gave me quite a thrill. The ex-hubbymeister didn't much care for classical music, but loved Debussy for some reason.

I think tonight I will write up the character interviews for the three little boys in my screenplay. Once these interviews are finished, my next step will be to rewrite my outline. Once the outline is rewritten, I'll be able to start rewriting the second draft of my screenplay. I plan to start rewriting the screenplay on Sunday September 1.

I want to finish writing my screenplay by September 30. This means writing 3-4 pages a day for a 110 page screenplay, or about 28 pages or so a week. This may be a tight schedule for me. I wrote the first draft of the screenplay in five weeks, so this new schedule is considerably shorter. I'm thinking, that since this rewrite is the second draft, the writing should go faster than the original first draft. I'm following my screenwriting teacher's advice, and writing from scratch on the second draft instead of just revising the first draft. Her method makes sense for my screenplay, since I've changed major parts of the story. I've never done this second draft total rewrite method before, so it will be interesting to see what first draft scenes survive.

I'm tired today. All I really want to do is go to bed, listen to my classical music CDs and read. I think the burger, fries and onion rings have stolen all my energy. I wonder if my body has to work harder to process junk food, since I hardly ever eat it. When I used to be really good about my eating, and eating naturally and cleanly, eating frozen and canned foods used to send my system into shock. I'd feel so sick afterwards. I wonder if I'm having the same kind of reactions now, as I did back then. I don't eat that cleanly anymore, but I also don't eat that much junk food, so I may be having a reaction. It's scary to think that junk food makes my body feel this way. What's in the food anyway? I used to think that processed and junk foods were full of sulfites, and it was the sulfites that made me sick. I wonder if my sulfite theory is correct after all.

Most writers are slaves to words, grammar and sentences. I’m not. I’m a slave to storytelling, plot line and characters. And let’s face it, most people do not speak or think in writerly prose. I despise stories that are written well, but have underdeveloped characters, don’t tell a good story, and have a bad plot line. I have to figure out a way to merge the two ways of writing, since both are essential for great stories.

Writing Gifts I may have:
Downloading a character or characters telling a story
Organizing the downloaded information into a plot line
Being able to see through to the end of the story and what needs to happen to get there

Writing Gifts I totally know I don’t have:
Words – vocabulary
Sentences and Structure
Grammar