The creative process of writing my book

Many of the events in my life aren't secrets I hold onto. When I left home at the age of 16, I wanted to experience things that I knew I never would if I stayed in Pace, Florida. From Pace, Florida to Columbus, Georgia to Atlanta with stops in Thomasville, NC, a few rest stops in the Virginias, driving through Washington DC and running out of gas in Baltimore, MD on the way to NYC brought so many experiences that I could most likely just publish a book featuring these stories and leave NYC and beyond for sequels.

Being that I'm not a sequel kind of guy and it's already taken me 22 years to get as far as I have on this book, especially after someone attempted to use my notes to write their own version of MY story and made it seem like a glamorous and candy coated adventure. While I would have loved to have claimed to be a high priced call guy, massage therapist and porn star, the truth of the matter was I was homeless and living off the kindness, of greed, of strangers. There were times that I had no where to sleep so I would walk around the city all night long just for something to do. There weren't any nights at the Plaza, being put up in a Park Avenue Apartment or even eating at establishments where you didn't order at a counter.

Working on an autobiography is NOT easy at all, especially when it comes to the not so pretty elements of positions I found myself in. Watching people I called my friends, shoot up with dirty needles, going shopping with a credit card that my "roommate/boyfriend" at the time stole from a trick while I was entertaining him in the bedroom or even getting raped by the cop who arrested me and my friends two days later while we were sitting on a street curb is not things I'm proud of but they are a part of my journey and story. To not include the sleazy parts of my story would compromise the integrity of the true life story. I may not be New York Times bestseller material but I intend to do my best to keep it real and honest with no fabricated drama...I had enough of the real life drama to make it seem stranger than any fiction I could write.

My friend Meg Ashfield, whom I've known since middle school, suggested that I buy and read the book by Lois Daniel called How To Write Your Own Life Story. Lois' suggestions are amazing. I do carry around 2 notebooks, as she suggested as well as many other ideas in the book have been incorporated, not only in my own book but my style of writing in general. 

I've had problems focusing my energy on one particular story, it seems other stories rush through my mind and as quickly as I think of the element and the event, it disappears before I can write it down. I've actually found a simple way to keep my events in order, though my book will most likely read in the form or a journal or essay with each story in each chapter or section connected in some way or another. The events of my book will range from May 1992 until February 1993. Many of my stories have been written in a bunch of different journals, all just randomly placed which makes it hard to keep try of chronological order. Rather than attempting to "write from the beginning" and try to remember each day as I write it until I get to the end, I've decided to use monthly planners from 1992 and 1993. I attempted to purchase older planners from that time online but the ones I tend to find are either used and written in or novelty collectors items going for outrageous prices. Luckily I have a working knowledge of computer software that I can create and print my own planners pages.

As of now, I got the end of June and entire month of July into the first week of August 1992 mapped out, from meeting Paula Abdul to meeting my friend Dixon on up to the events the journey Andrew and I took from Atlanta to NYC. At this point, I'm actually shocked that my day to day life just in the month of July seems like I was on the go and never stopped but thinking about it now, it's actually how it happened.