Today took a little longer than I had expected.
I had an awful lot on my To-Do list – but the very first item was REACH THE 20,000 WORD MARK.
And that was what I did.
It took a little doing because I was in the middle of a couple chapters that I only had the bare bone notes for – but this is the point of the game where a fellow has to reach into his pockets and pull his perseverance out.
Now I know that you can yourself into deep trouble with the authorities if you go blatantly waving your perseverance around like that but I am rebel, just because.
And I so wish that I had the time to hunt up an old photograph of me in my old biker’s black leather jacket – but one of these days I will.
You see sometimes you just have to go hard at something with all of your might. You just set a mark and you run for it.
That is the power of setting a goal and sticking to it.
Now – because I wrote so darned much today I don’t really have the time to give you folks much of a sermon on writing but instead let me show you a scene from one of my favorite movies of all time that will give you a better idea of just what I am talking about.
(and I really wish I could have found a clip of the whole scene – but if you want to learn about perseverance sit down tonight and watch Cool Hand Luke)
I have learned everything in my life from good old movies.
yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon
YOURS IN STORYTELLING... 
That is so awesome!! You inspire me. I am kind of in a funk a little, but I think after a nap, I will be good. LOL…As a writer, do you get tired of people telling you to get a real job, etc?
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Actually, I have ALWAYS had a real job. Lots of them. I’ve been a house painter, a factory hand, a wood worker, a fiddlehead picker, a circus roustabout, a retail clerk, a Tarot card reader, an industrial cleaner. I have crawled through oil tankers and clambered in church belfries. These days I work shiftwork in a cubicle. It pays the bills. Most writers often have day jobs, sad but true.
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Yes. I am looking for one. It’s been hard for me since 2011. I have done some temp stuff, but nothing stable. How did you do today with Nano? I wrote 1, 183 words. I am going to start writing during the day.
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I agree with you 100% about old movies. Most of my writing is informed by old movies and old tv. I am always thrown when people ask me for my writing influences because the writing is usually historical novels. The pop sci-fi comes from the telly. A couple too many episodes of Jason King, the men from U.N.C.L.E., Star Trek and The Avengers methinks.
Congratulations on hitting the 20k. Grand job.
Cheers
MTM
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I love old movies because the actors looked so much like real people back then. Nowadays so many of them just look like one more film school graduate with a heavily colgated-grin and a pilates body and a flat painted-on impersonal personality. Give me Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, John Wayne or Spencer Tracy!
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Oh yeah and Sophia Loren, Lauren Bacall, Elisabeth Taylor and Joanna Lumley. They were not conventionally perfect beauties but they were stunning.
Cheers
MTM
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Oh yes – Lauren Bacall, especially when she got older. I can’t picture Joanna Lumley – and I have ABSOLUTELY no use for Sophia Loren. I always found her highly overrated – at least in any of the Hollywood productions I watched.
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Ah I thought Sophia Loren was stunning. But we can beg to differ because you agree with me about Lauren Bacall! 😉
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Sophia Loren was gorgeous but as soon as she spoke she irritated the crap out of me. I just found her a little thick and pretentious. But oh yes, I agree about Bacall. She was rocking in The Shootist.
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