Richard P. Nixon's Blog

I’m still not quite satisfied with the round the world section – not sure if it needs a pinch of salt or maybe some sugar, but something isn’t feeling right.

So, I’ve taken a couple of days off to work on other projects. Top of the list is a video for client. Feels odd doing an American football promo when I have only the barest understanding of the game, but the results thus far have been very good. I thought I’d be adding in the visual effects today but I’m not sure they are even needed. Maybe some force lightning or an explosion. Hmm…

It’s always good to hear from old friends, but especially good to get back in contact with old friends that are in my book. Just the day before yesterday, while editing the Around the World section, I was thinking of my short visit to Anchorage in 1980 and how the only person I knew there was Bill Irby. Lo and behold, after a little Googling, I found a reference to him on one site, sent him a message, got a response, and now we’re in contact via Facebook. Pretty cool.

The real test of writing comes from reading the work out loud. I was shocked to hear what mistakes got past my eyes, though when you’ve been going over the same text for long enough it becomes easy to understand why mistakes happen. Reading out loud, however, uncovers all kinds of issues, not just mistakes. I like that.

Just finished tweaking the world tour section. Had gone down a dark path earlier but was able to find the duality again, to temper the gloom with a bit of a laugh. I mean, you gotta see the humor in bringing part of a kilo of hashish into Japan and, right before going into customs and immigration, seeing the wrapper hanging outside the radio, pinched by the battery compartment cover.

Ugh…lost sight of the humor for a bit while trying to get the details right. Back on track now, though, and moving right along.

In refreshing the Around the World section I got kinda down about it. I felt like something was missing. Going on a round the world trip should have been exciting and yet much of what I could remember was more grind than anything. Why? I wondered.

Well, the answer turned out to be I was missing something. There was too much tell and not enough show, and even the tell was missing a key ingredient to make it all make sense. I found what it was missing, added it in and now thinking, yeah – that’s it!

The around the world trip is turning out to be tougher to handle than I thought. Currently working on Tokyo – not sure how much I can play up the fact that we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant for dinner and ended up in McDonald’s for something to eat. Ah well…

Chugging along. I’ve now locked Portora Year Two. The editing is really quite easy at this stage. The biggest challenge I’ve had thus far is resequencing – finding that I was in Saudi when I wrote I was in England. Kinda put a kink in things since I had to then go back and figure out when I was in England. That sort of thing.

Portora Year Three is close to being locked.

Working on revamping the “Around the World” trip.

I’ve worked through Portora Year Two but haven’t locked it yet. Am waiting to do a final run through after some resequencing. Had to remove the entire Easter portion because a) it didn’t hold up compared with the rewrites I’ve been working on and b) it was in the wrong place anyway.

Am now working on Portora Year Three – in particular the summer of 1980 just prior to the “Around the World” trip.

Whew! I went through Portora year one with a great deal of apprehension because I discovered it needed help. Some things were out of sequence and other things just needed to be reworked. So I took the section apart, cut out the dead flesh, then peppered in new details. All better now.