I did it again. I pushed Delete by mistake after I had written a couple of paragraphs and I lost them. I can edit some of what I said before I cut to the point—-

-and then I got turned off by a tired battery. So it’s another day. Where was I? Well, first I dealt with my basket full of potential blogs that turned out to be overkill or underwhelming . Then I considered what I’ve been doing with two projects: First, my ageing book that I have tweaked and am checking over before sending it to my publishers for editorial comments. I’ve had one editor already, who tore me apart and then I did the same to an earlier draft (new outline, new approach). Now I have to think about my bad habits and how attached I am to them.

Second, my screenplay. My partner, whose excellent non-fiction book inspired me to turn into a movie, has been invaluable with authentic information on which I can hang plot points but she does not have screen-writing expertise . Neither did I, not enough. Though I had taken three brief (long-weekend ) courses in screenwriting with famous teachers (Michael Hauge, Syd Field and Robert McKee) and actually won a couple of Geminis ( the Canadian equivalent of an Emmy or a Golden Globe) working with a brilliant co-writer (Donald Martin), I realized early on that I needed to know more and had to augment my not-yet-10,000 hours of training. So I took the ScreenwritingU online course: 7 months, an assignment every 24 hours, with a 3-4-day catch-up and possible consult with fellow students every 5 weeks, drafting an original screenplay for my “thesis”. In addition, at the behest of a director who has taken an interest in our work-in-progress, I transferred from the Screenwriter program to Final Draft, which cost me more money and another learning curve. I returned to my partner and our project this year and we have reached an impasse. My friend refuses to use the word or recognize the need for arbitration, but she has conceded that we should let other people read and give us their reactions (judgement?) to help us decide what to do. She has talked to four friends.

I have asked one person for this assistance. She was a pupil of mine for two summer courses I taught in Creative Writing almost 30 years ago. She has become over the years my friend, peer and mentor. She took the same degree level course I did from ScreenwritingU and is completing her Masters degree now and negotiating her first Hollywood movie. In spite of all the time and energy you must realize this is costing her (and she is not well), she has generously given me her time and expertise to go over our script and give me a detailed analysis: formatting, dialogue, plotting, character development - the works. You can’t buy service or scrutiny like that. I am so blessed and so grateful.

I shouldn’t be telling you all this. This is not blog material. Perhaps, if any writers happen to catch my bleats, it might be useful to them. We can all use all the help we can get.

Quit while you’re ahead. I tried to transfer the Shmoop list of what it offers students to learn, including test prep, but I didn’t succeed. I’m not going to try again. If you are interested you can look up Shmoop.com

The day wasn’t lost, though. I finished - in a manner of speaking -the tweaked draft of my book on ageing. “ In a manner of speaking” means, there’ll be more to come, more tweaking, more work, more checking. This morning I hauled out my great big Chicago Manual of Style , 16th Edition, published 2010, to begin looking up stuff. That’s new enough for me. It was $65 so I’m not going to buy a new one. I’m told it exists only online now, for a price. I still like paper. I still own my grandfather’s Webster’s. I’ll look up its pub date later. Now I read it just for fun, as I used to when I was a kid and it was the most definitive dictionary in the house. There are a tonne of dictionaries in my house today, some of them quite specialized and esoteric. I loove dictionaries. I loove words.

I wonder if there are published collections of poems to memorize. Sure there are. Here a few interesting titles: Committed to Memory, 100 to Memorize, John Hollander (2000); By Heart, 100 Poems to Remember, Ted Hughes; and Poems to Learn by Heart, Caroline Kennedy. So others have thought of this.

I had a cousin, gone at least 12 years ago, who started memorizing poems for comfort, to recite to herself when she lay awake at night. That’s a good use. And I remember a science fiction story - it might have been by Ray Bradbury; it’s shrouded in the distant mists of my memory. After a holocaust of some kind when survivors banded together to help each other survive they pooled not only their physical resources but also their memories. They began to collect whatever people could remember and recite of literature, history, folk tales, lore, whatever, to teach their children and to honour their heritage.

My school generation had Memory Work. I suppose it’’s gone the way of cursive writing.