Links

This is what I wrote today on the story.  My goal is to have something complete by the end of tomorrow.  What that means is that the section after the ellipses will all have to be finished tomorrow.  I know that it will involve an extensive dialogue between Rebecca and her mother.  What I don’t know yet is how that dialogue will end.  If I’m able to finish it tomorrow, the ending will be determined as I write.  That’s something that I do with about half my writing . . . even the poetry.  Sometimes I have the whole thing planned in my head before I put a mark on a page.  Other times, the story reveals itself to me as I write.  Carvers will often times tell you that the process of carving or sculpting involves knocking away the excess to reveal the art underneath.  In some ways, discovering a story is the same, only in reverse.  Instead of knocking away the excess, the writer builds and builds until the story appears.  I’m not sure that makes much sense and if it doesn’t, let me know.  Anyway, on to the update.  (I do plan on posting the story in its entirety when it’s complete, in case you were wondering.)

Stephen McAllister served as a pilot and staff officer in the United States Air Force for over twenty-five years retiring in 2006. He participated in the 1991 war against Iraq and was stationed for eight months in Afghanistan during 2003. It was from this last deployment that he drew the experiences that formed the genesis of a lengthy diary. Two stories from that diary were collected with other military writing by the National Endowment for the Arts and published through Random House with the title Operation Homecoming, released on September 12, 2006.