…and a lot more action.

I’ve got a lot of stuff to get off my chest here, and not sure where to begin. I guess I’ll start with the worst bit.

Right on the heels of my post about my wife and I expecting… we went to the first sonogram where it was discovered there was no heartbeat. So um, yeah. I’m not going to be a Dad afterall. In addition to the emotional sucker punch, the ‘kicking while I’m down’ is that I feel like even more of a dork for getting so amped and telling everyone about it. I’m going to cringe when people ask me about the progress, so you could say this is a bit of therapy for me to just come out and lay the situation straight.

Tell 100 people about something great happening in your life. Now go back and tell that same 100 people that the great thing isn’t going to happen afterall. I think we’ve followed up with maybe 10 of the most important people, and, well… I’m already emotionally exhausted. Which leads to…

The blog has been quiet lately. I’ve made a post every day for the better part of a year, which is something. But I’m not sure how much longer that will last. I’m exhausted. Intellectually and emotionally. Especially after the lost pregnancy and all the excitement I had built over that.

I’m tired of talking about my novel. I just want to finish it. I’ve been reading a decent advertising book called Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Books about the art of advertising are great because they have so much in common with any other kind of creativity. One thing the author mentioned is… when you first start creating ads, your impulse is to ‘roam the halls’ so to speak, and talk up your ideas with everyone you know.

I have that syndrome pretty bad. I talk a really good game but one of my hard lessons in life is that I talk more than I walk. I don’t like that. In general, it’s a bad quality to have. Maybe it’s a quality all writers have–we like to talk. But a little more action would be nice.

Without going too deep into my family history… I had a grandfather who was a big storyteller. He had a gift for gab, and was a bit of an eccentric. His big failing in life was that he never accomplished much of anything, and left a broken family in the wake of his ‘adventures’ – most of which consisted in doing a lot of talking to people all over the world, but not a lot of acting or doing.

There is such a thing as a negative role model to learn from. I admire his passion and eccentricity to a degree, but I wouldn’t ever want to become him. I don’t want to be the Boy Cried Wolf or the big talker. I value action more than words, as a principle, and I feel it violates my own principles to talk more than act. Actions speak louder than words. These things become the epitomy of wisdom in our culture for good reason.

So with my tail between my legs, I’m crawling into my dark little cave to get some writing done. But as much as I’d like to keep my mouth shut in many ways I just can’t–this post is proof. So don’t worry, I’ll be here. Just less than before, and with a little more honest novel-writing work to talk about. Or that’s the plan anyway.

Less talk. More action.

While I’m at it, I should thank you all for reading this, and being regular readers. I don’t know if I’ve said it, and it’s a bit touchy-feely, but thanks you guys. It’s great to have a community of writers and bloggers like we do. Community is a great thing, and I love reading posts of my fellow text-slingers. Here’s to many more years of text-slinging, both online and off!