8/2/16 So I Think I Want To Write A Book?

    I have been playing with the idea of writing a book for awhile.  Wife always encourages me, and at first I thought I wanted to do it because of the money, but the reality is that only the written word survives time.  I love walking through a bookstore and seeing so many familiar names from long ago.  I want that, I know it is a bit narcissistic, but I think I got a couple stories in me, and I feel now that I will have tons of free time to myself, I can focus on that.  It would be the cat's pajamas to survive on the printed page for generations to read me long after I am gone.  After all, isn't that what we all want, immortality?
    I started writing a kind of self examination thing, and before I knew it, three hours flew by.  I wrote about seven pages, not to say they were great, but I thought it was a strong beginning.  There is no gain in describing my book idea, I don't need naysayers, I have a couple of those voices already in my head.  I really want this time apart from Wife to yield something more than her getting a fancy title, which is great for her, but I need to challenge myself more.  I'm doing the same thing day and day out for the last twenty years or so.  The pay is great and the work is ok, but I have more to give, I think.
    I have some ideas for stories, I just worry that books go on and on.  I don't know if I can stay focused and carry a story idea for a couple hundred pages.  I do want to say that Charles Bukowski just gets me going.  If you type in google to list the raunchiest dirtiest writers, his name comes up first.  That is hero material to me.  He doesn't just describe sex, that would get boring after a while.  He describes the stench of the whorehouse he visits, you can feel his greasy skin at the lack of showering, you can smell the wide ass on the whore changing the sheets on his bed which he will no doubt be banging in a minute and declaring one of the best lays he ever had.  He almost in all his stories mentions himself in the interactions and not as the tough guy winner.  He gets beat up frequently, life shits on him, he is comfortable admitting he is a drunk, and when life gets too complicated, he just jumps on a bus or train and heads to the next town.
    I love the idea of just being me, I can write a story like that, not that I have had adventures on trains or even busses, but I've had an adventure or two, and my mind can take a three and turn it into a seven or eight, if need be.  I started reading his Most Beautiful Woman In Town this week, and I love how it flows from one short story to another.  He doesn't get bogged down by having to carry a storyline and plot, he just has to say what he does about a given time, then it ends.