Blockade Billy

Author: Stephen King

Published by: Scribner (2010)

King’s latest work of fiction consisted of a novella titled, “Blockade Billy” and the short story, “Morality.”

Not being a baseball fan, there was much terminology, slang, and basics of the game I couldn’t grasp or was interested in learning about. However, the story, “Blockade Billy,” will entertain lovers and non-lovers of baseball alike because King never only writes about one subject. We meet William Blakely, who is from Iowa, and a damn good ball player. When one of the players is nicked on his ankle during a game with Blakely on the mound, one of the coaches becomes suspicious of the kid. The story contains typical King suspense, which was an absolute pleasure.

Resistance

Every time I sit down to write something, I start yawning. My body wants to sleep or is signaling me to turn off the computer so I can put off putting the words on the page.

As soon as I overcome the yawning fit (four or five in a row), the yawning subsides and I’m able to write briskly and with precision.

What is it about doing something that you love that you can be lazy about doing sometimes? I do this to myself all the time and wonder, “How will I ever get anything accomplished this way?” but I do, as I showed myself last weekend when I completed my short story in a few hours (of course with many breaks in between).

Every writer has their process. For this writer, turning on my laptop at night makes me work better than turning it on first thing in the morning. I’m a night owl; I cannot deny this. The trick is to plow through the yawning before it becomes my writing demise.

Late Night Writing

This morning, I finished a short story for my writing workshop. I was enchanted and completely involved in my story like I’ve never been before. I was lost in the story, I liked what I was writing, and although I know the tale has many places where it can benefit from some description, the first draft is complete. The only place to go from here is the revision state.

I was in the revision zone last year with a piece I had workshopped in so many places and the result was a polished story lacking emotion. I read the manuscript myself a few days ago and was impressed with how I crafted my tale but as for impact, there was none.

With this story, I can build on it without making my message saccharine but truthful and honest. My goal is to put myself entirely on the page, which I was unable to do with my piece for MFA applications.

I have officially decided to put aside applying for an MFA degree this year; I’m having too much fun writing both creative non-fiction and fiction to worry about application deadlines. The good news is I can attend university open houses and start saving for school when I apply for 2012. Seems so far away but time will fly.

I’m focusing all my energy on my craft and also running, but that’s another entry (when I finish Marukami’s book) so I will be busy this fall.

How’s everyone about to apply this round doing? Psyched? Scared? Who’s taken the GRE? I’m so glad I never have to take that test again!