Something I’ve been doing lately as part of my whiteboard schedule is doing some kind of drawing at least once a week. I’m trying to break out of my doodly comic style (I call it my “Murph” style after the character I used to draw in college) and attempt something a little more realistic. The last few weeks I’ve been trying out characters from the Bridgetown Trilogy.
Here’s a perky looking Denni:
Denni is an extremely intelligent girl for her age and nearly all of her classes are Advanced status. She’s amiable with everyone, but she saves her real emotions for her closest friends, of which there are few. Her closest friend is a boisterous and diminutive girl named Amna Ehramanis, a half-blood human (she has both Earther and Meraladian blood from both sides of the family and damn proud of it). She seems to have taken the deaths of her parents (also ARU agents) a bit better than Caren; she still mourns for them but instinctively feels that their spirits have remained close by to watch over them, and that has helped her heal.
And here’s her older sister Caren, wearing her Alien Relations Unit uniform:
Caren Johnson doesn’t look too happy here, and it’s because she hasn’t been truly happy for a long time, not since their parents died under questionable circumstances. She herself did not know how they’d died while on a case until nearly six months later. She’s healed somewhat, but she now feels frustrated and directionless, and feels she needs to do more to make everything right, especially now that she’s taking care of Denni. Despite all that, she still cares deeply about her fellow ARU partners and everyone else close to her, and will go out of her way to do what is right for them.
This is actually kind of a fun exercise! I know these characters so well, and yet all this time I never really got around to visualizing them in this manner. [There’s also the fact that this is a half-serious attempt at drawing the characters for a possible webcomic version down the line, but that’ll be some time in the future. For now I’m just trying to get them onto paper!]
I will of course add more sketches as they pop up!
I just finished reading AM Dellamonica’s Child of a Hidden Sealast night, and absolutely loved it. It’s one of those books where you end up staying up past your bedtime so you can finish it up. Fast-paced and fun, it straddles between YA and adult fantasy, following a girl named Sophie Hansa as she travels — first accidentally then purposely — to an alternate world full of magic, seafaring piracy, and family intrigue.
I mention this because I think it ties in nicely with a recent blog post by writer Shannon Hale called “No Boys Allowed: School visits as a woman writer”. She talks of her tours of schools to talk about her Princess Academy books, specifically the problems she has at some schools where her audience is all (or nearly all) girls, with nary a boy in sight. More to the point: the fact that the boys weren’t invited, or needing permission to join in. It wasn’t just expected that boys would have no interest in a writer who writes about princesses…even if it was unintentional, they’ve also reinforced the idea that boys shouldn’t have an interest in stories about princesses. It’s just not a manly thing to read, even if you’re 10.
This reminded me of an event in seventh grade, between myself and the school librarian. [I mention it briefly in the comments section of Hale’s entry.] They had this special event every month or so where kids could buy cheap paperbacks from a bookseller; they were your typical MG and YA novels, maybe some comic collections and kids magazines, that sort of thing.
I took an interest in that partly because my dad and I had started taking road trips on weekends to Northampton or elsewhere to stop at bookstores, and I’d pick up something to read every now and then. This book club was an easy way for me to find more things to check out.
At the time, I was interested in a lot of YA novels from Apple Paperbacks and other publishers; the covers may have been kind of dorky and the stories somewhat simple (strangers following you, problems with your friends, having weird yet really cool magical abilities), but they were fun reads. I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t that interested in stories about sports, or men of action, or any of those other typical boy-centric stories. The reason was simple: I like a good story, regardless of the gender of the main character…but the subject has to interest me. I wasn’t going to waste time reading about a kid trying to make the baseball team when I had no interest in baseball and sucked at it anyway.
Mind you, this was also the time where I’d started becoming interested in writing fiction. The Infamous War Novel I started in 1984 was the first one I completed, but I’d had at least a dozen or so incomplete ideas dating back at least a few years earlier than that. This had little to do with passive reading. I was gravitating to what I knew I enjoyed and wanted to write.
So when I’d ordered a few of these Apple Paperbacks (including Willo Davis Roberts’ The Girl with the Silver Eyes — one of my first forays into the SF genre, come to think of it!), I was excited to start reading these things. However…
However, the school librarian had side-eyed my choice in reading. In fact, if I remember correctly she actually pulled me aside. “Are you sure you want to read books like this?” she’d asked. “Don’t you want to read about sports or spy novels?” I stood my ground and kept reading these things, but there was something in the back of my mind that nagged at me: was I reading the wrong things? Was it wrong for me to like books with female leads? I shrugged that off just as quickly as it came, but that was probably the moment where I realized I would not be able to confide in this particular librarian. After all, she was also the one who had seen me pick up a copy of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer in the school’s library and asked if I would really ever get around to finishing it, considering it’s over five hundred pages long. And now I had it in my head: Would other boys think I was a fag (and I mean that in that wonderful 80s teen way) because I liked books about girls? Did I have to keep these books to myself now, for fear that others would side-eye me as well?
She apparently had my number well before I had it myself.
The sad thing is, this was also right about the time where my attention span had started to wane. Not out of any emotional or mental deficiency, but because I was starting to get bored. I didn’t figure it out until many years later that my grades really started slipping right around that time because I’d lost interest. I’d rather be listening to music or writing (yes, even then at 13…especially then) than reading some assigned book that I just didn’t want to deal with. The end result was that I would end up with my first failing grade in my entire school career. I got an F. In English, of all things! I wanted to be a writer and I loved reading! What had happened?
Thankfully, I turned it around and managed to squeak by with a C- by the end of the semester and didn’t have to stay behind or take summer school. I knew I wasn’t dumb, I just needed to make a concerted effort to get the work done. It was a slog and I did a half-assed job most of the time, but I did well enough to graduate with the rest of my class.
But the damage really had been done in junior high. I don’t blame that librarian…she was of an older generation and was safe in her Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Girls world. My bad grades were my own damn fault. But if it wasn’t for my 7th grade English teacher assigning us Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine (one of my all-time favorite novels), my mission to write and finish a novel, and a stubborn will to read what I wanted, I’d probably have done worse. I remained a B- student pretty much all the way until I graduated college. And I barely picked up a book for pure entertainment purposes, even though I was still attempting to be a writer…that wouldn’t happen until around 1995.
I know it sounds petty, but this is what happens when you throw preconceived expectations on kids of that age. Let me explain — I know you mean well, and I can see where you’re coming from (even when the gender segregation is a dumbass thing to do). You’re giving them anchors and guidelines, something for them to base their life experiences on. You’re trying to train them to see potential roads they should follow for future education, and that’s a good thing. But at the same time, you’re not paying attention to how the kids are processing it. A. and I have similar tastes in some things, but wildly different tastes in others. I don’t even have the same path of logic as she does half the time. We should learn how to think critically, but we also have to remember that each person thinks, lives and reacts differently.
I like what I like, and I choose not to be afraid of admitting that.
This is also partly why I chose to put Denni and Caren Johnson as the most important characters of the Bridgetown Trilogy — I remembered those Apple Paperbacks (and I was reading Kate Elliott’s Jaran series at the time) and enjoyed reading female lead characters. I had no other reason, political or feminist or what have you, for centering the story around them. They. Are. Important. Characters. And they were not extensions of me. That’s all.
I know this is kind of a long diatribe, but I felt it was important to share. I’d like to believe that the boundaries we should teach kids are not external such as gender roles or conformity, but internal, such as respect and awareness. Read what you want to read. Write what you want to write. Learn what needs learning. And don’t edit your reading preferences because of someone else’s opinions.
I think it’s time I readjusted my attitude about my day-to-day. It needs it.
I know many writers who write part-time — that is, they balance their writing time with their current day job and/or parenting duties. It can be a frustrating attempt at balance, especially when your Day Job Brain functions much differently from your Writing Brain. I play with numbers and emails all day, and I’m extremely well versed in business-speak. That job entails a lot of logical, linear thinking. Nine times out of ten, point A and point B should lead to point C. [That tenth time is the exception setup, what I often refer to as “it goes like this…except when it doesn’t.”] It’s not exactly a tough job — okay, it is in its own way, but I’ve been at it for seven-plus years and I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t let it stress me out all that much anymore.
My writing, on the other hand, includes a lot of nonlinear plotting, multiple points of view (not just in narration but in character personality), and a lot of leaps of faith, in hopes that it’ll all make sense at the end. It’s the dreamland I always look forward to, where I can play with words and images, make up fantastical things, and tell fun stories.
Just as logical, but completely different frames of mind. I’ve been doing both for so long I can easily switch between the two when need be.
Cary Grant from His Girl Friday
Lately I’ve been in a rut, however. By the time 4pm rolls around and I log off, I just want the day to be done already.
Okay, maybe the situation’s not quite that dire…but after eight hours of the Day Job, sometimes the last thing I want to do is work on something else. I want to be lazy and goof off! I don’t even want to go out at night…I just want to sit around and whittle the time away. Thankfully my ingrained guilt receptors kick in soon enough and I get to slog away for a few more hours doing whatever it is I need to do creatively.
How did I get this way? And don’t tell me “you’re getting old.” I may have just recently turned 44, but I’ll be damned if age is going to be an excuse for being a lazy bum.
I started thinking…what was it that got me excited about writing previously, anyway? Or excited about going out to do something?
As always, I thought back to a time where I was truly excited about my writing time. I thought about my Yankee Candle days — I had a half-hour commute each way, I moved hundreds of boxes all day long, and yet I still managed to make a weekly habit out of doing a comic book and new cd run in Amherst. I was also able to spend two solid hours writing at least a thousand words every night. My personal best in terms of word count that I’ve been trying to reach for ever since.* Or my days at HMV, where I’d drive 50 miles to the mall I work at, slog through the day, drive 50 miles back home (or the 70 miles to Amherst for the occasional comic book run, then an additional 30 back home!)…but still balance that with the hour before work writing longhand, and the hour or so at home, transcribing to the computer.
Point being: I know I can do it. There’s no doubt about that.
So why am I complaining that I can’t, or don’t want to? It’s not as if I’m particularly exhausted, mentally or physically, or can’t stand the project I’m currently working on.
I mean, I’ll be heading over to Amoeba over on Haight tonight to see The Church, one of my favorite bands, play an in-store show. The store is only a few miles away, and I’ll probably be home before 8pm anyway. And yet, why do I feel lazy enough to want to come up with an excuse for not going? I mean, come on. It’s the freakin’ CHURCH, for pete’s sake! They only sing my favorite song ever! Why the hell am I feeling so damned lazy??
Finally it dawned on me, just today: I was looking at this current schedule from the wrong angle.
I work at home, so it’s not as if I have to deal with a commute; I wake up at 6am, have breakfast, read some webcomics and catch up on the Twitter feed, and log on at 7:30. I take two fifteen minute breaks and a half hour lunch. I log off at 4pm and we head over to the YMCA soon after to get our exercise. Dinner is usually around 5:30-ish and I’m writing by 6:30pm, all the way to about 8pm. I get my daily words and my project words done at that time…and if the work day is particularly slow, I sneak in some personal writing, such as this particular blog entry. The day’s packed to a reasonable degree, but I’m not draining myself in the process.
All the same, I’ve been suffering from a terrible case of the Don’t Wanna’s.
And that’s the issue right there! It’s not the schedule or the work/writing balance that needs fixing: it’s my attitude.
So I submit this: let’s return to my YC-era work mindset — my day job is my paycheck, but my writing is my career. But don’t forget to have fun as well.
I’ll still dedicate the same time and brain power to the day job, of course. But let’s also look forward to logging off at the end of the day.
Let’s remind ourselves throughout the work day that, once I’m off the clock, it’s time to go and have some fun! Let’s look forward to walking around the neighborhood after work. Let’s look forward to playing in that imagined world for a few hours. Let’s look forward to having fun with what I love doing the most.
It’s not about trying to do everything at once. It’s simply a change of attitude. Look forward to life. Look forward to that bit of entertainment. Look forward to that writing time at the end of the day, because you know and I know it’s a hell of a lot of fun, even when it does get frustrating.
Chances are, the payoff will be worth it.
Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
* Mind you, I’m not trying to force a thousand words on a nightly basis, because it depends on the project. I’m working on Walk in Silence but not logging any new words because most of the work has been what I call ‘framing’ the flow of the book. My sort-of daily 750 Words have been consistently over 750 and flowing quickly, so I can safely say I’m counting the words where they really do count.
Let the idea sit there and marinate for a while; let it solidify into something worth writing about.
Outline, outline, outline!
Let it bleed out of you; don’t stop to fix it, revise it later.
I’ve heard all kinds of suggestions on how and where to begin a new project, and in the back of my mind I’ve been thinking about how and where I’ll be starting up the next Mendaihu Universe story. I’m still working Walk in Silence as my main project right now. I’m also creating a story out of my daily words (currently called The Lidwells Story), so it’s not as if I’m hemming and hawing and not getting any work done. The new MU story isn’t exactly top priority at the moment, but it’s in the back of my mind, poking me like a five year old every now and again, begging for a scrap of attention.
The trouble is that I’m really not sure where to start with it. I have a few very vague ideas of characters and plot points, but nothing solid. It’s not severe trouble, though…I have to remember that The Phoenix Effect started out almost completely from scratch as well, and I had maybe five or six scenes tops in my head. I have to remember that I had two plans when I began it: 1) write a new novel, and 2) use the idea of human spirits coming from somewhere else. That’s it. Nearly all of the scenes, plots and subplots, and character evolution I wrote in that book I came up with while writing it.
So really–the trouble is not where to start the story, but where (and when) to begin writing it. That is: prioritize projects. Don’t worry about the new MU story just yet–don’t worry about the plot or the characters, or even the theme at this point. Finish WiS and the Blogging the Beatles projects, and continue submitting the Bridgetown trilogy.
It’ll come in time. I’ll know when I’m ready for it.
I’ll admit I haven’t been up on movie watching over the last few years for one reason or another. It could be my tastes have morphed somewhat, being that we’ve mainly been hitting documentaries, Studio Ghibli movies, and imports. I haven’t gone to see a good throwaway popcorn movie in ages.
That said, I’ve been hearing reviews on the Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending, and the takeaway so far has been “oh god it’s a hot mess but go see it!” Here’s the trailer:
I finally got around to watching said trailer about a half hour ago, and found myself both concerned and amused that I saw a parallel between it and my Bridgetown Trilogy. Both contain an alien Origin Story (i.e., where did humans come from?), a female Chosen One character (some kind of savior to keep Earth from going kaboom), and a War for World Control.
When you’re a writer who’s trying to sell a novel you’ve carefully crafted for years that you’re currently trying to sell, and you see a Hollywood movie with parallels like that, you tend to have a moment of oh crap, someone beat me to it!
And then I realize–those three points are everywhere. I’m not the first, nor the last, to use the alien Origin Story, a Chosen One and/or a World Control plot. Time to calm down a bit.
I mean, much of the Mendaihu Universe in its early days was influenced by 80s and 90s SF movies and anime anyway: the Gall Force series, Until the End of the World,Strange Days, The Fifth Element, Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix and its sequels, Akira, and so on. They might not be for everyone–some people see these kinds of stories as over the top and ridiculous. Sure, there’s an element of the fantastical in the Mendaihu Universe, but that’s often what these kinds of stories are about. And besides–Jupiter Ascending might be over the top, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not entertaining. Pacific Rim is ridiculous, but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun.
So that’s why I’m not exactly worried that Jupiter Ascending is getting sort-of-panned by the critics and the public. I’m not going to pretend my Mendaihu Universe stories are superior or better executed…I’m pretty sure parts of my universe are a hot mess as well. But my aim wasn’t to write a perfect story–it was to write an entertaining and thoughtful one. That aim is more important to me.
Of course, now that I’ve seen the trailer for this movie, I definitely want to go see it. 🙂
I’m my own worst critic when it comes to writing, and especially when it involves failure to keep to a writing schedule. I made a joke of it late last year by calling it “Best Laid Plans”…mainly for the reason that whenever I went online to excitedly reveal what I’m currently working on, those plans would crash and burn spectacularly. More to the point though, I’m constantly putting guilt on myself when I’m not writing. I get that nagging itch that feels very much like Sunday night at 8pm, when I’ve realized I’ve left three classes’ worth of major homework undone until that point. I yell at myself for being an idiot for not doing it earlier. I gripe and moan and do half-assed work because I’m rushing it at the last minute. And worst of all, there’s that one tiny voice in there, almost inaudible, that says you know, if you keep this up, you ain’t gonna get shit-all published in your lifetime. Gods how I LOATHE that one voice…because it speaks a very bitter truth.
So after I get over the guilt and the shame and the irritation, I shut myself up and get back on the horse.
I haven’t exactly been lazy this past week, when it comes to writing. One of my coworkers was out the latter half of the week and ended up with double-duty for those three days, so I realized I probably would not be running on full power. I decided to let myself slack on the daily words, as they weren’t time-sensitive or the main project, and skipped on a few whiteboard points as well. This left me with just enough brainpower to kick out some new words for Walk in Silence as well as decide how I was going to integrate them into the manuscript. All told, I averaged about 500 words daily, and I’m happy with that result.
So now that everything’s back to normal, what am I going to do now? Get back on the horse, of course of course. I’m already doing so now by writing this entry, and starting tomorrow I’ll be hitting the daily words again. I’ll even be able to hit the whiteboard points again. Yes, I know, Best Laid Plans…but I’ll take it a day at a time, get done what needs being done, and be happy that I’d made forward progress. Sometimes that’s the only thing you can do.
Now, if only I’d been this proactive with my homework back in high school…
I’ll keep this short, but here’s the tally I got from my writing stats notebook:
— Daily words at 750 Words: 22,149 words over the course of 27 days; most being 1022, least being 750
— Daily journal: 19 total entries (word count not taken)
–Writing & Music Blogs: 11 total entries (word count not taken)
–Main Project Work: missed counting a few days, but on average about 4 out of 5 weekdays. It’s been a mix of rereading, some revision, and new words.
Summary Comments:
The daily words are okay, but I’m a bit frustrated with the main project work output. That’s to be expected, though, as I was doing a lot of refreshing: rereading what I had so far, making mental notes of things to be changed, and planning on where to go next. At the same time the daily words haven’t been exactly throwaway; I’ve been working on a slightly different and much lighter project there. The first half of the month started out strong, but petered out near the end. This was partly due to social engagements, however.
Suggested Adjustment:
Stronger focus on the main project work output from here on in. I’m well aware of a few problem sections that can either be rewritten or deleted altogether, as well as a second run-through for the ‘second side’ of the book. Focus more on getting those daily words earlier in the day. Continue with the habit of ‘getting it done early’ in regards to scheduled projects and whatnot; continue backing away from distractions.
Hi there! First time attempting to post via my phone, so please excuse any typos or errands! 🙂
If I have time tomorrow I shall post January’s word count and output…a quick glance in my wc notebook shows that I was actually quite busy, so that makes me happy.
I’ll admit, I have a lot of writing reference books that have a nice sheen of dust on them. It’s an embarrassing admittance, but I have to put it out there. I’d like to think I have a pretty decent grasp of grammar and style in my writing, even if my blog entries and novel first drafts leave William Strunk and EB White twitching in their graves at times. I’ve cracked a few book spines here and there when need be (usually my copy of Webster’s Collegiate or the ever-helpful Flip Dictionary), but I think it’s high time I started utilizing them more. Here’s a few that I find helpful, and you might too.
Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing. I picked this one up right about the time the first seeds of the Mendaihu Universe were sown in 1993. I’d always been a big Bradbury fan (Dandelion Wine is one of my top favorite books ever), and always resonated with his style and method of writing. His essays on writing inspired me to get out there and do it instead of just talking about it. I reread this every other year or so, just to bring things into perspective again.
University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style. Seriously, I don’t know why I ignored these kinds of books for so long. I may have a decent grasp of style and grammar, but I’m pretty sure I screw up the nitpicky stuff more than I wish to admit. Everyone should have at least one manual of style kicking around, even if it is just to check if the period should go inside or outside the quotation mark at the end of a sentence.
Barbara Ann Kipfer, Flip Dictionary. A. has often been at the receiving end of that writer’s question, “What’s the word for…?” when I’m having a brainfart, and this one’s great for fixing that. It’s a reverse-lookup dictionary for the most part, but it also has short sections of related “type of” words (one being a list of hairstyle descriptions and their names afterwards).
Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and The Emotion Thesaurus. Someone on Twitter suggested these to me at some point (I forgot who and when), but I picked them up soon after, and they get a lot more use than I expected. I do tend to overuse certain expressions without thinking — a rough draft of The Persistence of Memories had nearly all the characters sighing in frustration at some point — and these books give me excellent alternatives.
Robert Lee Brewer, 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing. I’m excited that publishing is now at the point where DIY is viable and not frowned upon nearly as much anymore. I’m even more fascinated by the fact that WD Books has finally released a self-pub version of their annual Writer’s Market book. It’s set up pretty much the same way, giving a section to editorial services, writers’ conferences to look for, and other items of interest. There are also quite a few interesting essays in there as well regarding the business of self-publishing that are worth a look.
Joel Friedlander & Betty Kelly Sargent, The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide. This one popped out at the end of the year and is a nice and lean ebook on par with Brewer’s Guide. Quite slim at 141 pages, it dispenses with any essays, how-to’s and so on, and instead just offers the online listings of a number of companies, artists and aggregators that can help you get your self-published book out and noticed. If you know exactly what you need…say, an editing service to fix your typos, a specific image for your cover, and an aggregator to get the book out to multiple platforms? This is a list of possible candidates for you, without the distraction of everything else you don’t need. [Okay, I freely admit this one was a shameless plug, as I got a free ARC out of it if I gave it a review on my blog. Still, I found it exactly what I need for my recent possible self-pubbing endeavors. Plus, Joel is an excellent resource on the self-pub business, and Betty writes some great self-pub articles in Publisher’s Weekly that are worth searching out.]
Publisher’s Weekly. I wouldn’t suggest this magazine for the beginner writers (I’d suggest The Writer, Poets & Writers and Writer’s Digest instead), but if you’re a professional writer or just about getting there, this one’s well worth the price. It gives you weekly news on what’s going on in the publishing world, book and conference info, weekly sales charts, and quite the extensive (and very diverse!) review section that’s contributed to my TBR pile. This magazine focuses on the non-writing end of things–what goes on once your book is out in the wild. It’s eye-opening, and definitely puts things into perspective.
What are some of your favorite reference books? Come and share!
In which I am the 1,459,476,874,686th person to take this picture in San Francisco.
After so many years at my day jobs, I was finally able to take my birthday off (January 22nd), so I decided to give myself a nice long four-day weekend. We both had that Thursday off, so we decided to go out and about and have fun. We hit a few of our favorite spots (bookstores, a yarn store, our local sushi boat restaurant) as well as visit a few new ones (Alamo Square, Bi-Rite Creamery and Brenda’s Meat & Three on Divisadero). We even watched some anime that evening. All in all it was a nice relaxing day, and the weather was perfect for it. I spent most of Friday afternoon in the dusty dollar bins of Amoeba Records as a birthday present to myself. Yesterday we went to see a Tom Stoppard play (one of my favorite writers) and went out for dinner afterwards. And today has been for cleaning and shopping. Only now, at 3pm on Sunday, am I finally making an attempt to get some writing done.
Aside from a few blog posts and one day of daily words, my output these past few days has been pathetic.
Thing is, I hardly made an attempt. There were a few moments there where I felt the pull of my daily words or my personal journal, but I chose against it. It wasn’t a decision made out of being lazy–it was one made on purpose. This was a way for me to remind myself that it’s okay to take a day off every now and again. Even if there’s work to be done, sometimes it’s better to stop and smell the roses instead.
We writers often pride ourselves on being able to write whenever and wherever and for ridiculously long bursts at that, but we’re also our own worst enemies when it comes to deciding not to write. Sometimes we must because of deadlines, or because it’s the only way to get any work done at all, but other times we don’t know when to quit for the day. Yes, we could be out there watching a football game or walking around the neighborhood, or even sitting on our butts for six hours playing video games, but too often we deny ourselves that moment of entertainment. Every moment without pen in hand or fingers on keyboard is a moment wasted.
That bit of guilt is still there, days later. I only managed the daily words on Friday, breaking a 23-day streak, and I haven’t written in my journal since Wednesday. I didn’t write any new words for Walk in Silence, but I did reread a few passages just to remind myself where I was. The only thing I’ve done that remotely involves writing lately is read Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Styleas part of my self-assigned homework. After years of avoiding active study of style manuals and books on how to write well (caused by a tenth grade English teacher who tried to teach me how to analyze prose within an inch of its life), I thought it was high time to face that demon once and for all.
I know I’m still going to feel guilty that I squandered all these days off and broke that streak, but life goes on. I truly enjoyed the days off. I got errands done that needed doing. I let myself spend a bit of coin on one of my favorite hobbies. I shot some pretty decent photos of the local scenery. And I got to spend some serious facetime with my wife, who usually finds me hiding up back in Spare Oom instead, nose at the grindstone.
Besides, my writing time will be back to normal come tomorrow.
Welcome to Bridgetown 