Hey folks, I know the month is half over but I promise I haven’t bailed on this project! I’m putting a new story up next week, but in the meantime I wanted to check in and tell you all what’s going on with my many artistic endeavors.
First, big shout out to George Wagner for Mindful of Madness’ groovy new cover art. He’s a good friend and a cool artist. You should pay him to do stuff.
While we’re on the subject of paying people to do stuff, my schedule is painfully void of photography and stand up gigs for the next couple months. If those are services you’d be interested in, hit me up! I’m also available for writing projects in exchange for currency or sandwiches. I am very good at all three of these things and also very cheap.
Now that we’ve got the gross self-promotion out of the way let’s talk about the Mindful of Madness project. As I said in my first post the plan is to showcase a new short story every month in 2019. I’ll also pop in with short posts like this to let you guys know how it’s going.
So here’s how it’s going: EDITING SUCKS. I’m not good at it and I hate it. My wonderful wife Brittney, who is much better than me at things like spelling and remembering where commas go, has been kind enough to take on most of the copy editing, but when it comes to content, the buck stops here. I’ve got to ask myself questions like: “Should the reader know this yet?” or “Do I really need to explain the history of the Roman Empire in this story about a Mafia hit man?” or “Was the third sentence in this paragraph too long?”
For me, first drafts are all about listening to your gut, it isn’t always easy, but if I trust myself, I know I’ll get to satisfying resolution eventually. Second drafts on the other hand seem to be all about second guessing. It’s a necessary part of the process, but it hurts when you realize that scene you thought was brilliant doesn’t make any damned sense.
I know lot of artist and especially bloggers try really hard to put an uber-positive spin on their creative process, glossing over the bumpy bits because everybody wants to be thought of as a genius and it’s probably the professional thing to do. Guess what guys, that’s never going to be me. Art is hard and I think there’s value in owning my struggles with the creative process so I promise I’m never going to sugar coat what’s going on with this project.
All that being said, I’m really happy with how my next story, “The Man with the Case” turned out. It’s the tale of the guy the mob calls, not when they want to send a message, but when they want to make a problem disappear entirely. I’m a big fan of noir and mafia stories and I had a blast putting my own spin on the genre. Barring an act of god or crippling bout of depression, I’ll post Monday, Feb. 18. It’s a longer piece, about 6000 words, so I’ll save the thrilling conclusion for March.
I know, I hate cliffhangers too. Why don’t you send me some hate mail about it at mindfulofmadness@gmail.com or just hit me up on twitter @drewjokeringram
Until next time,
Andrew Ingram
Mindful of Madness 