Jeff O'Handley, Author

Jeff O'Handley

The Doubting Writer Finds His Voice

The Thicket

About a month ago, maybe two, I don’t quite recall, I started working on something new. It came about in an odd way for me, because I knew three things about it before I had set a single word to page: The title. This is really unusual for me. Titles rarely come so early in […]

Flexing the Muscle

First, let’s be clear about one thing: I know that the brain is not a muscle. The physical brain is a collection of neurons, glial cells and blood cells, wrapped in a membrane full of fluid. It is not a muscle. It cannot move. It can’t go out for a brisk run. It can’t lift […]

Pound, Pound, Pound

Yesterday morning I did something that I a) thought I would do several weeks ago, and b) thought I might never do: I typed ‘###’ at the end of my WiP. In case you don’t know, ‘###’ is a fancy way of saying, ‘THE END.’ This brought to a close the first stage of what […]

And still another wall (and still not THAT one)

I thought I would be done. When I posted last week, I thought I would be done by now. My brief wall notwithstanding, I was pretty certain I would put a bow on it and be finished by the time this post rolled around. I was wrong. You see, I hit another wall. After finishing […]

A wall, but not that wall

Way back in school–and I’m talking elementary school, mostly, so it was a long time ago–our teachers tried to impose a certain degree of structure on how we wrote. Whether it was an essay or a short story, we were introduced to the concept of writing and revision. We would write up a ‘rough draft’, […]

Slumping

David Pastrnak is a talented, All-Star right winger for the Boston Bruins who won over the fans in Boston from day one for moments like this: …and for moments like this: Pastrnak has developed into a tremendous hockey player. After joining the Bruins as an 18-year-old, he had two modest seasons, then broke out for […]

“I think there’s a play there!”

Monty Python’s Flying Circus once featured a skit in which a well-dressed, professional looking young man named Ken (Eric Idle) returns to the home of his parents, where he receives a warm welcome from his mother (Terry Jones), but hostility from his father (Graham Chapman). What starts out looking like a tale of a college […]

Gone Fishing

We’re still picking at the remains of Thanksgiving dinner here at my house, still delighting in turkey and stuffing (a once a year thing), sweet potato casserole and apple crisp. Thanksgiving is, in many ways, the loveliest of holidays, both because of the sentiment and the fact that you never have to ask, “What’re we […]

Finally

It finally happened. On Saturday morning, after inserting and feathering in an 810-word sequence, I sent off my manuscript to that “one more reader.” I kind of wanted to feel like Rocky running up the steps while training; I felt more like these two guys: I’m not sure which one’s the manuscript and which one’s […]

Almost there

I’ll admit it, I’m a little disappointed in myself. I was hoping to be done by now, but when I finished working on The Weighty Tome yesterday, I was on page 376 of what is now just 400 manuscript pages. So close! But I had put probably close to four hours in over the course […]