#Writing

Thursday, hmm?

‘This must be Thursday,’ said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. ‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays.’

Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Is it boring to write about the day of the week? Probably.

Am I doing it anyway? Yep.

Well, kinda.

Thursdays are always a bit weird for me. A kind of reckoning about how well my to do list matched my capacity this week and then a reset of priorities for Friday.

Not an exciting thing to talk about and it would definitely be a short post.

A boring and short post.

BUT!

Sometimes you have to let yourself be boring so you can build a habit.

Creative practices, like drawing or writing or blogging get easier the more frequently you do them.

If you stop for a while, you tend to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to create something good or interesting in order to make the practice worthwhile.

The truth is, though, that if you take away the pressure to be good or interesting, you are more likely to be able to create often. When you create often, it is easier (as I mentioned above) and, oddly enough, you are more likely to create something interesting or good.

For an interesting story (stories) about that fact, visit Austin Kleon’s blog.

So, since I want this kind of writing to be easier, and (eventually) interesting, I’m going to just plug away at it, even if I’m boring sometimes.

GIF of a kid lying across an office chair idly spinning around.
Image description: GIF of a kid lying face down across an office chair, spinning idly. The chair is in an open plan kitchen/living room area with a wooden floor. The space looks lived-in and cluttered but in an ordinary living sort of way not a overwhelmingly messy way.

May 1: Low Key

I want a lot out of this month but I am trying to teach myself to add things slowly instead of trying to do everything all at once.

After all, I know that successful changes, new practices, come from starting small and building up.

BUT

I also know that jumping right into a bunch of new practices all at once feels good. I feel engaged and energetic and accomplished…until I run out of steam.

And despite the fact that I run out of steam EVERY SINGLE TIME, my brain still wants to chase that excited feeling of doing ALL OF THE THINGS.

Without the benefits of medication and experience, I would be planning to do more art, more writing, more exercise, more Taekwon-do, more house organizing, more everything all at once, starting right now, maybe half an hour of each, on top of what I already do each day.

It would be fun today but by the end of the week, I would be out of steam.

So, instead, I am layering all of those things into my life during May.

I will ‘touch’ each habit each day but only really focus on one at a time.

Let’s see how it goes.

?a view of a backyard patio with bare trees in the background
My patio and trees are on the same plan that I am – the basics in place but we’ll add new things a little at a time and let them grow. Image description: The view from one corner of my patio. A lawn chair is directly across from me and beyond that there are trees that don’t have any leaves on them next to my red shed.

Good News: I like my book!

Various papers and writing tools rest on a cloth surface.
Image description: A clipboard, post-it notes, a typed page and handwritten notes in a notebook are resting on a cloth surface.

I spend a good chunk of today reading my novel draft and making notes on various characters.

It was boring to do the work but the reading was really fun.

I was happy to discover that I really like my book – the characters are interesting, the plot is pretty good, and the writing is pretty solid.

There is a lot of work left to do to make it into the novel that I want it to be but I am very happy with this starting point.

Revisions

I’m on a writing retreat this weekend so I can start revising my novel.

I’ve revised stories and articles but I have never revised a whole book before.

(No, I don’t think I can do it all in one weekend. This is just for starters!)

Wish me luck!

GIF of a man typing on a laptop and saying ‘This is good.’
Let’s hope this is how I will feel tomorrow. Image description: A GIG in which, Nick, a white male character from the TV show ‘New Girl’ is typing on his laptop in his messy room and saying ‘This is good.’

Not the boss of words today

I generally find it pretty easy to write.

Sure, it might be hard for me to actually get myself to sit down at my desk but once I have the document open and I start typing things usually flow pretty well.

In fact, I often describe my writing as bossing words around.

Today, however, I was not the boss of words. They did not want to pay any attention to me and they flatly refused to line up on the page in a logical fashion.

Luckily, I’ve been writing for a long time. These kind of days are going to happen. They don’t have any special meaning about my writing, or my writing skill, they aren’t a sign of anything.

Today’s frustrations only mean that today was frustrating.

There’s always tomorrow!

A GIF of a monkey typing.
Image description: a monkey (or maybe a chimpanzee) in a pink shirt types on an old-fashioned typewriter.