You sound financially safe. Therefore, I think you should keep the loan on the car and build up a bigger nest egg. Once you get 10k, put another 5k or so into individual stocks that are reasonably safe. Use your credit cards and pay off every month. Then, you will have free cash available if needed. I support you in making family a priority. Meanwhile, look at your monthly expenses. You might be able to trim 100 to 200 every month. That is after tax money.

I agree. It's an interesting concept, but doesn't go far enough to write beyond the obvious plot points.

Right. I stopped reading this book about 1/4 of the way in. Life is too short.

It's not that I enjoy it, but it seems like the best way to work with books. I used to take notes either in notebooks or on the computer, but it took a long time and sometimes I didn't have the quote right plus it took a long time. Now I take notes all over the books, list the most important ideas in the backs and on the covers with page numbers. Then, I have everything all together, my thoughts and the original quotes. Also, it my computer is around, I will try to put a sentence to a paragraph down to get my thoughts out.

This is such an interesting question and I've thought about this a lot with good writers. What I see in Carver and Chekhov, and others, is that there is a lot of information packed into a small amount of space. There is also a lot happening. It might not be a car chase, but it is thoughts, emotional or mental movement, changes inside and out. These good writers also know a lot about people. It is like looking inside and seeing secrets.

In contrast, look at your typical potboiler. In chapter one there is the hero. S/he might have a flaw, its the same flaw. It's a stereotype. They are trying to do something. 10 chapters later, they are trying to do the same thing. If you put the book down in the middle, two days later you can barely remember what it was about.

In contrast, a great book can be picked up years later and restarted. You can remember the outlines after skimming a few pages here and there. At the end, you have something to think about.