Writing Homer has been a labor of love. I created Homer mainly to please myself because, in doing so, I am learning to write. For me, each article is an exercise in which I learn to weave a different type of story, impart a feeling or opinion, or merely “flesh out” a character – so that he or she will have some dimension in upcoming episodes.
The more I write, the more I am becoming aware of my need to research the subject that I am writing about, but this task too, is part of my learning journey. As many of you know, I spent my working life in sales, having turned my back on the not-so-lucrative journalism courses taken in college. At age 70 I decided to venture forth to see if I had any skills left, and here I am at 73 still trying to find and hone them.
Some of Homer’s content involves subtle humor, personal opinion, cynicism, and resignation with “what is,” none of which requires much research; and, these articles are truly an ‘easy write’ from beginning to end. Some of these articles will also border on ‘boring,’ but character development in this type of setting, usually is.
My ultimate goal is to create a body of work consisting of at least 100 different Homer articles and then to ‘repurpose’ them to become a book (undoubtedly self-published) sometime in the future. If you actually read these columns, bear with me; someday they might just morph onto a book. After all, “everybody has a book in them,” right? Even me!
