so feel like making sweet sweet love to me yet? how about now? you totally should because I’ve been putting the vibe out there for a good hour or so. Perhaps, if you live on one of the coasts it might take a bit to get to you. . . but you midwesterners should probably be overcome with desire for me right about now.

So anyway I’ve been thinking about writing today. Notice that I said ‘thinking’ and not actually ‘writing.’ I have a ton of propaganda to write, but I kinda want to work on a short story. See, entries for the Tamarack Award are due in like 11 days and I’m totally entering because I could put $10K to use. But more than that, Philip Roth has got me thinking.

After ditching out of work early yesterday, I was lucky enough to catch Philip Roth interviewed on NPR. I love Roth. Sabbath’s Theater is one of my favorite books of all time. He talks about his new novel Everyman (which I really, really am trying to not buy before my birthday [which is in 34 days]).

The guy who interviews Roth asked him “how do you know when it’s done?”
“It comes to an end when you’ve answered all the questions you’ve raised,” Roth said.

I kind of loved that. I always have a hard time ending my stories. More often than not, the story ends because I’m out of time and have to hand it in. I don’t think I’ve ever written a story where I didn’t get nailed for my lame, inconclusive, doesn’t make any sense at all ending.

Dale, a former writing teacher, always said it’s your job as a writer to land the plane safely. While I like the idea of that, I never quite got the metaphor. But this when all the questions are answered, is perfect for me. Especially because whenever I sit down to write the questions are right there with me:
Who should be telling the story?
Why now?
What’s at stake?
What does your character want?
What is your character afraid of?
What are the consequences of these scenes or actions?

That Roth man, I could kiss him.