with momentum constant there is a power in stop. Control in silence. He coughs, stop. He sleeps, wake. soda-sodapop. 

I have spent all week on outlines and mindmaps. Dialogue sequences, review; I had a phone conference today with a fellow Cope Syndrome enthusiast, I listened to her correctness on art theory. I am lucky to have such brilliant friends. They know a lot of things and I need people like them.

-Enter away from sound-wording and into thought-wording-:

Be sure, as a creative professional, to surround yourself with people who respect your vision and who are thinkers. They will help you define your work in the larger context. You should also try to do that as much as you can, but many artists, myself included, would say that thinking too much about the larger context can put you out of your work or corrupt it. 

You may cringe when I say this: the literary critic is the writer's best friend. Get a few on your side. When it comes to the work: what is history to a theorist is a series of artistic decisions for me. What is cerebral for a psychologist is still artistic decisions on my part. I can study the art and technique to death, as I should, but I will get nothing out of applying socio-political lenses to my own artistic work. It's not my job.

This is an important point. As much as I will harp on about independence, interdependence is the most important thing. Specialization takes independence, but it is nothing without other specialists. My focus on the cinematic aspects of fiction is a luxury which has afforded me drastic artistic progress, the kind of artistic progress that I don't expect to go unnoticed when Cope Syndrome is available for the general public. But I refuse to take for granted the professionals around me; even those who work for my web server, for instance. 

If you want to be yourself, if you want your work to be an imprint of yourself, surround yourself with people who actively carry the same practice. I'm not talking about the corner-smoking-pierced-baristas-of Generation Apathy who beats their gums to intellect. That is all grand, but I am talking mostly of creative people with a professional attitude. I don't care if they're an accountant or what. 

A fellow of mine tells me that Alan Cope is humanity. I don't pretend to have an articulate understanding of that, and so I am awarded intuition. But I can give you every technical, artistic decision that makes Alan Cope that what is Alan Cope. 

Breathed again STOP Haven't done anything wrong STOP If you're like most of my readers go interact with your journal STOP

Everything we buy has writing and art on it. So does everything what convinces us to buy. So iss everything. Don't tell me that creative career is an oxymoron. If you doubt it, go into advertising.