Writing Practice 40: The Journal.

I know what I have to do.

I have to put Richard's ex-friend's thoughts on life into a journal, which Richard will read through over the course of the story.

The Eddie story, for example, will be in the ex-friend's journal.

The first story in the journal will be the ex-friend saying that his mother kept something he wrote from when he was five years old. On the paper was written the question, in crayon, of course: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The ex-friend, at five years old, wrote his response: "Not a grown-up."

The journal goes on to say: "I learned a very valuable lesson from this... You might not know what you want, but you always know what you don't want. You might not know what you need to include in your life to be happy, but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that you know what you could exclude.  If you're unhappy and you don't know how to get happy, just stop doing whatever you're doing. Whatever you're doing has made you unhappy. Your habits, your routines - whatever you're doing is making you sad. You might not know where to go, what to add or how to fix things - just know that you need a change. Your standard has led you to your unhappy mood - change your standard. Just don't do what you've been doing."

(again, not the perfect sentiment, not perfectly written, but you'll get the gist of what you were trying to say here when it comes time to write the ex-friend's journal, and you'll write it ten times as good as you just have. This is an idea you've just jotted down to record for future reference. Good for you, keep doing that. Keep writing. Write the brainstorm. Spend time with your idea. Write, write, write!)