linda collison's Sea of Words
charting a course from imagination to publication
Franks and Franciscos
Here we are in Tucson, Arizona… Wish you were here!
Nothing like a hole-in-the-wall diner to cure a Sunday morning hang-over. Note the bullet hole in the window next to the table where we sat tucking into some of the best huevos rancheros in Tucson.
It’s a “mixed neighborhood” as they say. The hardscrabble side of town. Sure, there are plenty of trendy, up-scale places to dine in Tucson but I don’t want to blog about those. I’m not a food critic, a Yelper, I’m a novelist. I collect characters, settings and interesting little details and then sit back and watch what happens when you put them together.
Life is a novel, a rather messy one at times. Always a random fly buzzing around, a tired eyed waitress behind on her rent, a sinkful of dirty dishes, and a drive-by shooting when you least expect it. But what Frank serves up out of that greasy kitchen tastes sooo good, fills our bellies and cures our hang-overs. Now I’m ready to go back to The Page, to do the day’s work.
Except I don’t know what’s going to happen. Where’s this story going anyway? Outlines don’t mean shit some days.
Just get out and walk. Find some hole-in-the-wall restaurant, open your eyes, fill your belly. Listen to what Frank is saying to the waitress, and note the way she laughs but rolls her eyes. Smile at your partner across the table, that man you love. Remember this moment.
Bullet hole in the window next to our table.
Beware the time pirates!
Once again I’ve been waylaid by these cutthroat brigands who attack undisciplined writers and rob them of their precious time. You’d think I would learn!
The only way to keep them at bay is to set a writing schedule and stick to it. Stick to the chair and write for a predetermined amount of time. This method produces words and words are what I traffick in. Words are my pieces of eight, my little treasures, my legacy and no amount of marketing, social networking, daydreaming, surfing the net, housework or shopping will produce more words; only I can. And the way to write is to sit down with lap top or with old-fashioned pen and paper, and engage the great sea of imagination through the fingers. Free write first, to get the ideas flowing, to prime the pump. The editing will come later. If you don’t produce the words you have nothing to edit.
1. Schedule the time to free write
2. Stick to the schedule.
3. Write for predetermined amount of time. Stop when the time is up, and make a note of where you’ll start tomorrow.
So easy! 
OK, maybe not easy, but simple. I know this works, it’s how I’ve written two published novels (and several unpublished ones) two guidebooks, and countless articles, essays, poems, and stories. You don’t get published by spending all your time marketing, you get published by writing and rewriting.
Right now, I have two projects underway: I need to better organize my time so that I can complete the manuscripts in a timely manner.
1. Book three of the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series.
2. A psychological thriller set at sea.
I plan to use this blog as a primer to my free writing, a sort of dedication, a ritual, an answering shot to the pirates of time. This blog will be free written, it will be rough and raw, it’s the primer to get the juices flowing. ARRRRGH! Pirates be gone!
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