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Erie, Pa.
Sept. 1, 1938.

The diary swings into its third calendar month although not quite two months of it has been put down. But it has been continuous and I am encouraged. Drove up to Gospel Hill this noon alone with a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of Coca-Cola received at Well's Diner (now Heath) in Wesleyville. It was a cloudy day but the sun found its way through here and there, making a beautiful picture of city, lake and country lying stretched out there far below. The colors of the vast fling of water hanging in the sky, varied by the shadows of the clouds, was especially lovely. I did a lot of thinking about life, the world, the why of it all, some thoughts that stagger the imagination. And as always, I came away realizing how wonderful life can and should be and how much I want to appreciate it as I know I should and certainly can if I only will. I felt a new determination to follow again my cherished ambitions to write. If I had gotten seriously down to it three or four years ago when again I half heartedly took it up, I could be selling today - I know it. If today, I begin and follow it diligently, two years from now (a short time) I can be selling; I feel sure of it. But it means hard, determined work, hardest at the start when the habit is formed. So I laid out a schedule roughly as follows:
1. Keep this journal regularly.
2. Study Uzzell.
3. Keep notes on all ideas in a card file.
4. Write 1000 words a day of fiction.
5. Read and analyze stories.
6. Put my wasted time to work on this.
I estimate I waste at least two hours a day that I

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