It’s been a little while since I’ve done any writing (other than normal blog stuff)…even longer since it wasn’t just a parody. Tonight, that finally changed.

Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on it, and remembering why I am sometimes afraid of writing. The story chose its own path after I had the general idea down. I’m writing the ending right now, and I’m pissed off at it. I really hate the way it’s ending.

But it’s the way the story wanted to be told.

I’ll post it when it’s done. Then I’m off to bed, with the hopes that this story doesn’t haunt my dreams.

I may be in over my head

I mentioned that I wanted to work the Jack Benny show (and maybe other shows) into my next story.

I decided to cheat and make my main character a time traveler, though I haven’t decided why or how yet. This would enable me to use words and phrases that weren’t around in the late 1930s. After reading Stephen King’s 11/22/63, I guess I have time travel on the brain.

The down side? There’s a lot that I don’t know about the 1930s. I know that Mickey Mouse was around, and that the Great Depression was going on. But really, that’s about it.

I didn’t think about the research I’d have to do to make the story somewhat believable. I’ve already looked up the history of radio, telephones, and the Great Depression, and I’m only one paragraph in.

But, even though I’ve written very little so far, I still feel like I can do things with the general idea in my head. I’m going to go ahead and see where it takes me, even though the process may be a lot slower than my last story.

Or I may have my time traveling character alter history early so that accuracy isn’t important. It would be a cheap way out, but it’s an option.

I haven’t decided what to do with my next foray into writing. I think it’s going to involve Jack Benny somehow, though. I grew up listening to old radio shows, and have always loved the old comedians like Jack Benny, George Burns, Bob Hope, and Fred Allen, among others. 

Fortunately, many of these recordings are available online (and even better, they’re free to listen to…and otr.net has 610 episodes of Jack Benny alone, not even counting the other radio shows that they have archived).

I found a stretch of six months straight of every weekly episode of the Jack Benny Program without any missing ones to break it up. So ideally, I can weave that in somehow if it’s a longer story (maybe the novel I always wanted to write?).

Maybe I’ll even try to cross reference any guest appearances he did on other shows…he made quite a few appearances with George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and he had quite a show-business feud going with Fred Allen.

Not that I just want to transcribe the shows…but like Eddie Dean constantly hears Someone Saved My Life Tonight by Elton John in his travels in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, my character maybe just happens to catch Jack Benny a lot.

Mostly, it’ll be an excuse to listen to all of these shows. Which will be an excuse to maybe spend a little less time on twitter. Not less time here, though. At least I don’t think so. You guys have a much bigger place in my heart for putting up with my emo-ness.

Now I just have to figure out what story I want to tell that takes place between October 4th 1936 and April 4th 1937. Then again, there are probably other streaks of shows that I can find in the list of 610…that was the first long one I came up with. I’ll have to look at the rest of the list, but for now, I’m just going to catch up on my dashboard before bed.

I just wanted to share this, though, because I thought of it last week and the thought still excites me this week. Most of my bright ideas fade in that amount of time.