Letter From The Front - Feb. 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day, Mom!

Is Dad going to take you out to a nice dinner tonight? I guess, after you remind him what day this is, right?

Things are going just fine on the writing front. Not too much to report. We lost some ground over the weekend. Didn't write at all, mostly to give the troops a much deserved rest after our rousing success with our thirty-minute writing raids last week.

But we're back on tempo, and last night the enemy's casualty count of unwritten words had risen to 30,131. Although we've taken a few casualties of our own, my commander says that we've crossed the critical threshold of 30,000 words laid to rest on the page. That's 60% of the battle, and he says it's all downhill from here. I hope he's write...er, right. (Ha-ha! Freudian slip!)

Seriously though, I've written a lot of theory and background exposition, but the story still lacks a clear, tangible direction. But my commander reminds me not to try to fight the whole war by myself; let the politicians and senior officers worry about the grand strategy. My job is to just nail at least 1,786 words to the wall each day, and I'm very confident I can do that. Being that today is the 14th of a 28-day month, Pentagon timetables say we should have at least killed 25,000 unwritten words by now. Considering we're already over 30,000, and exceeding our quota nearly every day, the Administration is very pleased and has lots to crow about back home.

Because of our slippage over the weekend, we might not finish by the 18th like I'd hoped. If things go well, and we work really hard, we might be able to regain the momentum we lost. But sooner or later, I'm coming home, Mom, and in one piece, I promise.

Start planning my coming-home party. I want yellow cake with chocolate frosting; you know that's my favorite. Don't need a lot of people there. It'll be good enough to be safe at home again, having fought another brutal and relentless literary war, and to have come home with one more medal for bravery, and one more printed manuscript, to show off to the grandkids I'm sure I'll have someday.

Don't let dad forget to take you out tonight! You deserve it! Give him my best.

Love,
Your boy